Remember when you were a kid, and your parents put TV restrictions on you? How they wouldn't let you watch the shows you wanted to, like Married with Children? And to kick you while you were already down they'd even limit your tube time to 2 hours? Sometimes I think I need that kind parental control nowadays, maybe not so much for TV-since like everything else we have limitless access to, it lost it's lustre and we've moved on to the next form of addiction worthy media. I need it for everything else that has monopolized my time and attention without me even noticing it. That includes facebook, twitter and everything else that falls under the umbrella of "total time-suck." Just because we disperse our time across 4 new forums of entertainment, doesn't make them any less harmful, and just because you can check it while grandpa Jo is paying with coupons and coins in the grocery line or waiting at the DMV doesn't mean it takes up any less brain storage.
And it's garbage most the time-do I really need to know what so and so is eating for lunch??! Or learn for the 8 billionth time that "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away"?! I knew that already, I knew that back when everyone had it as pictures under their 'about me' on MySpace 5 years ago. Not only that, its these false relationships that face book and the like renders-people we know only through their braggin' or their ranting and almost nothing in between. No real connections, just vast and endless flow of useless information. My head might explode at any given moment, and instead of meaningful memories of my life or insightful philosophies about the world....my headless neck would be spewing viral videos of puppies chasing their tails from YouTube and pictures from some fraternities latest kegger. That's not what I want going through my head in my last moments on earth, and my brain capacity is extremely limited as is. I feel as though that space should be saved for something that contributes to society more like the cure to cancer or the piece of evidence that would prove OJ did it.
An even worse side effect of constant "connection" is that we begin living our lives through comparison and only adding to this collective dysfunction of trying to keep up with the Jones' were subjected to anyway. What's real is me, and what I'm going through today, and not what lavish vacation Ms. Goldigger was just taken on, or what success Mr. Entrepenuer just found. While I'm perfectly happy for them and their good fortunes, "powering off" every once in a while and disconnecting, helps me redefine what the corresdponding version of my own happiness is, and working towards that. No offense, but I want to live and die by my own definition of fulfillment, not yours or anyone else's. You should do the same. So that being said, lets work on not letting this social media stuff spiral wildly out of control and start deluding what our idea of reality is. And now if you'll excuse me, I have some Real Housewives of Beverly Hills to catch up on.
I love this martha. Well said. And i totally agree with you on this issue. With the ability to stay connected with everybody and anybody at anytime and anyplace, it definitely demonstrates its utility and usefulness to individuals and society as a whole. However, I think too many people focus on trying to stay connected through an online social network rather than actually staying connected through real life human interaction and communication. By spending more time networking using online applications rather than real life networking, people are slowly losing their ability to effectively communicate and respond appropriately to real life encounters and situations with other people. And when people become addicted, as many people do, I think they become more focused on what other people are doing and try to relate it to their own goals and accomplishments instead of keeping their own individualism. Ultimately, I think everyone needs to be aware of how much time they are spending on these social media networks and limit their time appropriately as to not allow themselves to succumb to addiction. I realize how text messages and online messages are super convenient and appropriate most of the time, but, how about picking up the phone and actually talking to that person or go out and spend some real life quality time getting to know the other person....actions like this are truly invaluable.
ReplyDeletei see what you are saying and agree. but...i confess your status updates are my favorite to read. they always make me laugh :)
ReplyDeletemiss you!
P.S. this is amy from your lifegroup who moved to portland :)
Well put with a few exceptions: 1.) "Did you know England is part of an island?" 2.) I think you meant "DMV" not "DVM", or maybe you did and it's a Vietnamese term I'm unfamiliary with. Otherwise good stuff...keep writing.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. That's why I'm thinking of downgrading my already simple phone to this...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OKFjOWzzTs.
Maybe you need one too. Then again, disconnecting that fast from the cloud might cause some strange side effects. Just a suggestion.
@ Mike(btw, I can't see your profile? Is this Mike Lindgren?-if so-I had no idea how eloquent you were!! It's been obviously tooo long:)) But I agree with everything you said, we're so connected all the time and yet we've all never felt so alone. It's a shame, we really need to regulate this stuff and its role in our lives:)
ReplyDelete@amy-I miss you soo much!! I always think about how you were making fun of me trying to pray LOL Hope you're liking it up there, come visit us soon!!
@Robert, listen I can't live without text...let's be realistic here;)
Great blog marth :) I'll be sure to keep reading :)
ReplyDeleteok I loved the knowing that life is not measured by ..... tid bit... I think the same thing I see that, back to the myspace days.... but just when I thought it had been played out enough, a recent country song was made with that as its main lyrics.....
ReplyDeleteAlso I love your end of the blog hahaha.
love it