Social Media: Good or Bad?
My boyfriend sparked my post today. He absolutely dislikes a radio ad that claims that "Jenna is a better person, using her smart phone to make witty remarks and posts". This topic is kinda an odd one to bring up on this forum as a blog is a form of social media. However, this ad is trying to sell a smart phone and claims you become a better person with social media at your fingertips.
Lies! Honestly, I think my iphone has led to a slight demise in my own personal character. I am guilty of NOT being able to be more than 10ft from my phone without having separations issues. I am not the only one either. I find myself using my phone for everything, paying for coffee, posting things on FB, clothes shopping, as an ipod, as a timer for my WODs, as a WOD journal, to look up workouts, to find restaurants... and the list can probably go on.
Before I owned a iphone, I did not expect people to answer my messages ASAP, I did not post pictures of my cooking creations, my workouts, my hiking trips ect. I probably used FB at least 350% less than I do now. I think having the public at your fingertips makes everyone slightly narcissistic and I think has led to increasingly shallow posts. a question I am going to try to ask myself now before I post anything is ... "why I am putting this up on the internet?". I admit I sometimes like sharing things in my life so that I can let my family who is 2,000 miles away know what I am up to.
Honestly, it saddens me when I post a beautiful and thoughtful snippet from an awesome person like Ghandi, MLK or some other amazing human being and I only spark conversation in about 5 others who share very similar beliefs. Whereas a less thought provoking posts whether it is mine or someone else's will get a bazillion likes or short un-thoughtful "you look pretty" type comments. I think social media such as FB is fed by this positive feedback loop that feeds off of people's need of attention, compliments and validation... so a person gives a compliment or comment in hopes to get one later. I am not an expert in human behavior but that is my explanation for it.