To borrow a little something from Ronald Reagan, Social Media isn't the solution to our problems, Social Media is the problem!
I know this may sound eerily similar to my previous post, but because of some well deserved criticism, I feel compelled to issue a clarification of my position.
It isn't the internet or technology that I am against. There is no doubt the Internet has played an important role in society, even beyond its original intent of ensuring uninterrupted lines of communications for the military.
It's the Social Media applications that have spawned from the internet that I am against. it's the principle reason I dropped my Facebook account awhile back, and more recently my smartphone. I believe [next to religion] Social Media is the biggest cause of the problems we are currently facing in this country today.
Because of Social Media, we spend less time interacting personally with each other, preferring such faceless applications as Facebook, Twitter and even blogs [guilty as charged] to express our thoughts. Even talking on the phone has declined as we switch more to texting and email.
Because of Social Media, we have become more detached from our fellow human beings, no longer interacting in ways that brought us closer together in the past. Instead we hide and retreat behind applications which make it so easy for us to ignore each other, and that which we don't want to be bothered with. We have relegated ourselves to our own little world(s) ignoring the problems and concerns of others, and rationalizing those problems away.
One of the biggest complaints about President Obama is that he doesn't try to engage his political opponents (as well as supporters) the same way Thomas Jefferson did while he was president. Some attribute that to aloofness. I attribute it to President Obama being a student [victim] of the Social Media age. An age where we don't know how to engage others, or are just afraid to, but instead prefer to engage others using the anonymity Social Media provides.
My conclusion, from yesterday's post, is still the same.
While the state of affairs in the US may not be exactly what it was in the days of Thomas Jefferson, we might all do well by taking a lesson from history. In the words of George Santayana, in his Reason in Common Sense, The Life of Reason, Vol.1,
We sure don't need things getting any worse about now!
I know this may sound eerily similar to my previous post, but because of some well deserved criticism, I feel compelled to issue a clarification of my position.
It isn't the internet or technology that I am against. There is no doubt the Internet has played an important role in society, even beyond its original intent of ensuring uninterrupted lines of communications for the military.
It's the Social Media applications that have spawned from the internet that I am against. it's the principle reason I dropped my Facebook account awhile back, and more recently my smartphone. I believe [next to religion] Social Media is the biggest cause of the problems we are currently facing in this country today.
Because of Social Media, we spend less time interacting personally with each other, preferring such faceless applications as Facebook, Twitter and even blogs [guilty as charged] to express our thoughts. Even talking on the phone has declined as we switch more to texting and email.
Because of Social Media, we have become more detached from our fellow human beings, no longer interacting in ways that brought us closer together in the past. Instead we hide and retreat behind applications which make it so easy for us to ignore each other, and that which we don't want to be bothered with. We have relegated ourselves to our own little world(s) ignoring the problems and concerns of others, and rationalizing those problems away.
One of the biggest complaints about President Obama is that he doesn't try to engage his political opponents (as well as supporters) the same way Thomas Jefferson did while he was president. Some attribute that to aloofness. I attribute it to President Obama being a student [victim] of the Social Media age. An age where we don't know how to engage others, or are just afraid to, but instead prefer to engage others using the anonymity Social Media provides.
My conclusion, from yesterday's post, is still the same.
While the state of affairs in the US may not be exactly what it was in the days of Thomas Jefferson, we might all do well by taking a lesson from history. In the words of George Santayana, in his Reason in Common Sense, The Life of Reason, Vol.1,
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
We sure don't need things getting any worse about now!
Comments
at all? There are more of those people than you know.
What about people with friends in foreign countries who can't afford phone calls to these countries. Social media has been a real boon.
I could go on.
Having said that, while I'm a member I'm no fan of Facebook.
As for long distant relationships, there is still email.
I stand by what I said. Social media does more harm good.