#asvpchino

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Stay Elevated

24. Kobe Bryant post.

Stay open minded. Stay friendly. Stay kind. Stay charitable. Stay ambitious. Stay strong. 

Stay Elevated

[asvpchino]

The Curse of Social Media

11. The Curse: Social Media and its Impact on the Youth of Today

Mark Zuckerberg and Tom from MySpace had the right idea. To bring people together on one platform. Using the power of the internet, people would be able to interact with each other at a moment’s notice. It’s a wonderfully powerful tool that’s available to us. We can interact with people halfway across the planet with Social Media. The way Social Media applications harness the worldwide power of the internet is truly special. 

But like anything, Facebook can be abused. It’s gotten to the point where people feel that they can say anything in whichever way they choose because they don’t have to interact directly with the person they’re conversing with. Thus some hurtful things can be said, whether it be intentionally or unintentionally.

Social Media was something that was intended to bring us together, but now it functions better as something that separates us.

Back in the day if you wanted to talk to a friend, you either had to call him on a landline, or go directly to his house and talk to him. Today, you can stay inside your own house and talk to dozens of people in a single day. But where does that leave us? I think it’s become a problem that social media is now a barrier that separates us from true human interaction.

Not only that but Social Media allows us to pretend to be something or someone we’re not. We can comment on whatever, however we want, and not really feel any sort of repercussions from it. We can also portray ourselves as something we may not actually be through pictures and statuses. 

People may claim to be “about that life,” but most really aren’t. Social Media allows us to create internet personas and characters any which way that we want. It also allows us to complain to not just one person or two people, but to dozens and maybe a hundred people across the span of a single day.

So there’s got to be at least one or two people that congratulate or empathize with your complaining and that’s awful. It’s a vicious cycle. You complain about something, someone commenting on your status begins to complain about something that doesn’t really matter etc etc etc.

When I go on Social Media, that’s one of the first things I see on my timeline. Someone complaining. Hardly do I ever see someone congratulating another, or shouting someone out. Hardly do I ever see someone doing something that is actually creative.

And when someone does do something creative, it’s posted for the purpose of self-promotion, almost a sort of boasting.

Social Media allows us to say, post, and “do” whatever we wish without ever actually having to get up and do that thing. There is so much that we talk about on Social Media but never end up actually doing.

I think that our addiction to Social Media has become somewhat of an epidemic because not only are we separated from people, but also because we are no longer obligated to actually physically see people to interact with them. And that’s dangerous. Because whatever you say, no matter how hurtful, you don’t have to see or pay attention to the impact that your words have on someone.

If you were standing across from your someone. I guarantee you wouldn’t say half the shit you would say across social media.

For example, I post something about spirituality on my timeline and of course some nigga has to comment saying how I’m wrong and I don’t know what I’m talking about. If he was talking to me face to face about spirituality, he wouldn’t say shit about how I’m wrong. Probably because I’m not. hahaha

And now because of the unbridled power of our smartphones, we can carry multitudes of social media applications on a single device. So we’re stuck looking down at our phones all day. At a gathering of people, we don’t even have to talk to people at all, we can just stay there looking at our phones.

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tinder, etc etc etc. So many different applications to distract us from the person in front of us now.

“So what’s your point Anthony?”

Much like everything I talk about on Tumblr, life is about balance. And there should be a balance between abuse and use. Social Media today is being abused in ways that it’s become like a drug. The drug isn’t opium or marijuana, but facebook likes and instagram likes.

We like to think that having a lot of followers or instagram likes makes our content good. But having a lot of followers doesn’t mean shit. If you have a lot of followers on Instagram, but you’re the most boring person in real life, those instagram likes don’t mean shit.

The problem is that we use social media to create this person online, rather than creating the person in real life, and then projecting that identity online. SELDOM do people actually know intimately who they are and what their purpose is. And so these people, left to their own devices, will try and create a persona on social media that will draw “likes.”

In my journey, I used to use Facebook and Instagram likes as a drug as well. At one point, that was really all that I cared about. The person I projected myself to be on social media wasn’t really the person I was in real life. Just like many people today. I was obsessed with Facebook and Instagram to see how many likes that I got on my latest post. 

But today, all I care about is changing the world, my purpose, and constantly working on myself to become a better person. I could care less about the things that people say to me on social media because I know that person wouldn’t say any of that shit to me in real life. I don’t care about Instagram or Facebook likes, I care about creating things for people that could help them learn about themselves.

So am I saying that we should swear off of Social Media? No. There isn’t anything that you have to do in life. But what I am saying is that Social Media can be abused as well as utilized. I think that the time that we spend on our phones should be reduced. If you do have anything to say on social media, post it and then put the phone back in your pocket. If you’re with people, then you should be looking at the people, not your phone. Focus on talking to people through real life interaction rather than talking to them strictly through social media.

The Internet is an all-powerful tool that is available to an incredibly vast amount of people and it can bring us all closer together, but it can also separate us.

How are YOU going to use Social Media?

[asvpchino]

Relationships: The Forgotten One

9. Relationships are a lot different than they used to be...

First I’d like to shout out all my friends who are in great relationships. You guys are doing a great job. It definitely makes me happy to see my friends doing well in the arena of romance. I’m doing quite well also. I’m just romantically involved with my self and the game. >:)

Anyways....

Relationships today for the most part suck. People have become so obsessed with getting into a relationship. Isn’t it strange how when you’re single, all you want to do is be in a relationship. And when you’re in a relationship, all you think about is how many girls or guys you could get with if you were single. it’s weird. We’ve become pretty good at denying what’s going on in the present moment, and wanting something else. EVEN THOUGH that what’s going on in the present is what we’ve brought upon ourself. 

There are many times along my journey where I’ve thought about how nice it would be to be with someone. Or how great it would be with a person just like me. How great would it be to find my other half? I was always thinking that I need to find someone to complete myself.

Well if you’re looking for love, if you’re looking for your other half, you have to stop looking. Because you already have it. You need to love yourself. If you don’t love yourself how can you expect for anyone to love you? There is no way someone else can complete you because you’re already complete. You’re already whole as a person, but you don’t know it. You think that there’s something you lack that someone else can compensate for.

I’m telling you right now that there’s no relationship that can complete you if you aren’t already complete. You’re just one half getting into a relationship with another half. Neither of you actually know what you want in life. Neither of you are enlightened enough to grow into a relationship. And the relationship is probably doomed from the start.

The divorce rate in the United States is 50%. The Divorce rate in California is 60%. So that means in California, if you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing, you’re most likely going to get divorced. And unfortunately, there are more people who don’t know what they’re doing than there are who do.

What’s the problem here? I think the problem here is that we get into relationships without having a good relationship with ourself first.

We’re too concerned with fixing the issue with someone else, something else. Well, shouldn’t we try and fix the issue with ourself?

Not enough people give themselves love. They’re ready to give other people love and try and get love and acceptance from others, but the most important source of love and acceptance is ourself. More importantly than any other sort of acceptance is the need to accept ourself. Nothing is more powerful than knowing, realizing, and accepting your strengths and weaknesses. Being in a relationship with someone before knowing those things, I don’t think you can ever figure that out because you’ve got another human being you have to worry about.

Worry, anxiety, fear, and hate are all diseases of the mind. Sickness comes from our minds and our actions. So does solitude. If you’re alone and you want to be with someone, chances are, you’re going to stay alone. If you think that you need someone else to be happy, you’re wrong. You don’t need anything to be happy. Happiness is a state of mind, not a result. It isn’t like a relationship is going to cause you to be happy. You’re happiness should be the cause of a relationship.

So many kids today think that they have to be in a relationship to be happy. That’s not the case at all. That’s a needy state of mind. If you think that you really need some other person in your life to be happy about yourself, then I don’t think you can ever be happy. No matter how many people you’re with, no matter how many relationships you’re in, no matter how many people you’re talking to, if you think that your life will be complete if you get into a relationship, it never will be. You can get into 20 relationships with this mindset and still never be happy.

In my journey, I found that in order to find happiness, true happiness, you have to find yourself. I found that being single isn’t a bad thing, but a good thing. Being single gives you the opportunity to work on yourself and to really discover things about yourself that you never knew existed.

The point i’m trying to make is that you don’t need someone to complete you. You are complete. If you don’t feel like you are, then you have to experience it for yourself. Discover fulfillment on your own before trying to find it in someone else. If you want someone to complete you without being complete yourself, you’re going to get into relationships and never really truly find fulfillment. Fulfillment can only be discovered on your own, within yourself, and not from someone else.

Being in a relationship can give you spiritual growth beyond anything you could ever imagine, but at the base level, if you don’t find fulfillment on your own, you’ll never find it with someone else.