The Social Media BOMB

            “If our hearts were as pure, as chaste, as snowy as Pythagoras’ was, our ears would resound and be filled with that supremely lovely music of the wheeling stars. Then indeed all things would seem to return to the age of gold. Then we should be immune to pain, and we should enjoy the blessing of a peace that the gods themselves might envy.”

I love quotes like this. I don’t know why, but they just always seem to catch my attention in a way that nothing else can. They’re usually pieces of a greater speech or literature, and the best parts of them! Even while I have been experimenting with Instagram these past weeks, I have noticed that, besides having just a lot of pictures, there are also some users that post quotes in jpeg form, too! So not only is there photographic beauty in many of the posts, but also literary beauty as well that really gets me thinking. Particularly this one:

            This week in class, we have been talking A LOT about this. As our class discussions often tend to turn towards technology we have to remind ourselves that, although all social media platforms are run by some form of technology, not all technology is social media. And although it has very well influenced the growth of social media, we must not confuse the two. There is a lot of psychology behind social media: How people relate to each other over social media platforms is very different from how we relate to each other in real life. Don’t believe me? Then take this humorous video, for an example. Pretty good, eh?

            Anyways, as we’ve been going through class, I’ve been thinking a lot about this whole technology thing, because it just seems so intertwined with social media that I feel it has actually become a very serious concern within our class discussions…

            …Particularly with the idea of PATIENCE. What is patience? Who knows anymore! Since the evolution of technology, patience levels in people have gone WAY down, which contributes to anger problems going WAY up. I think that these two should start to be looked into more seriously. Maybe it’s not just media violence, but the aspect of the technology with which we access these forms of media that create so much impatience and stress in children (and even adults) when they are placed in real-life situations with those people who (honestly) cannot in any means function faster than a computer can! We are conditioning the future generations to expect things so much faster than they should. I fear that someday my children will be talking to their grandparents, and will soon become impatient because they can text or IM one of their friends and have a full on conversation about last weekend’s party before grandpa can even finish telling his campfire stories! This haunts me.

            But I think the real reason behind my fear, is most likely myself. Having before been stubborn to downloading facebook, instagram, blogger, and twitter to my phone; I have “caved in” and have begun using all of them since starting this class last week. Given, I already had a facebook, I did NOT have it on my phone, for fear of it taking over my life.  And that’s kind of what’s happening to me.. I find myself looking and looking and looking at all of the different platforms I now have on my phone, checking them a few times each day to see if there are any updates or notifications on all of them. Personally, I admit it is wasting a lot of my time. And I feel it, but I just feel so attached to it at the same time, and (since I also don’t want to fall behind on class updates on facebook or twitter) can’t really do without them anymore! What to do?

            I guess I have turned myself into a guinea pig on this one. I have pretty much dropped a “social media bomb” on myself this past week, and am now assessing the situation to figure out how to resolve everything now.. Anyways, once I figure out the solution, I will have to get it on here ASAP. As well as my project I am currently working on, which is to be announced within the coming weeks.

Don’t forget to THINK before posting!