Generational progression has it’s moments in my opinion where the trends, social shifts and overall advancements result in changes that require the people to stop and examine what direction they are travelling in before it s too late to turn around. I have spoken to many of my people about the perfect transitional period I think we grew up in. We’re old enough to know a world without smart phones, Internets, FB, Hip Hop, hell for some of us we know what it was to have no cable. And yet we’re young enough to be fully adapted to the technological boom of the pass 15-20 yrs. Simple functions that my parents still need help adjusting too I can do in my sleep. So easy has it become for us that we’re losing sight of what being human is really about.
You’re getting caught in being characters and comic versions of ourselves. Now from this point on there will those that label me as being too serious. It’s all fun and jokes, blah, blah,blah…….Well I give that was never my sense of humor. We may not all be aware of it but the impersonal aspect of technology is feeding into everyone’s desire to feel invincible. You may think it’s not in you but it is. It may vary person to person but it’s there. In a world where you are at the mercy of so many things, here is an aspect of life you can control with a reckless abandon that the offline world bothers permit.
Think about it. I may be as digitally social as anyone, some of my best friends and yes Loves came via the Internet but I haven’t forgotten my basic face to face school yard born principles. I remember in school that you could do many things to get under a person’s skin but some of the worst fights I’m known and seen came from telling another person to “Suck my Di**”. It was just understood that those words = Physical reactions. Ok cool, we fast forward and everyone has that as reply for something not cuz they intend on brawling but because they know there safe before there laptop, office desk or smart phone.
Lemme keep going with this. Here’s the scene. A person you don’t know at your job or in your class has on funny style clothing, shoes or as seems to get so much attention, a bad wig. You sneakily take a Polaroid picture and go on to copy and pass the image along to coworkers, strangers, making jokes the entire way. Does that seem very realistic to you? No because that act would eventually reach this person and come back to you. You’d be forced to explain your self face to face with this stranger that you’ve been insulting. Don’t get me, some things are funny and I can appreciate a little joke but everything in moderation.
I think in the end it’s that no ne thinks anymore. You have such fast technological options that you’ve cell phone twit pic’d and blasted an image of an innocent person to thousand becoming millions before you stopped to think if you should. If don’t you think about cuz the Internets for the most part will keep you anonymous. It’s kind of cowardly if you think about it. I have many people that I’m cool with and generally like with “interesting” personalities but if one of them hit me up saying they got checked physically or otherwise for some cyber antics then I wouldn’t have any sympathy.How much of what we do would we do if the intended target of our words and actions would find out and see us about it?
You see I love the many options technology has opened up for us. When my friend is bouncing across the globe and I’m missing her any can still communicate. I can build business with people I’ve yet to meet. I can research who it is that may be worth getting to know and building with. And should their offline match or be better then their online self then hey the network grows. I honestly do more watching and observing email that public communicating. I treasure my text, email, and bbm convo’s much more then FB or Twitter cuz I’ve learned that’s when I deal with the real. All foul mouthed, disrespectful side show ends when we speak 1 on 1 and I’m addressing you as an adult. And 9 out of 10 times the response is lovely. I’ve had to ask some people why do you present ya self in that manner? Lovely people, intelligent men behind Digital costumes…some say it’s to vent, others say it’s just another side of them, some admit it’s just for fun and show.
All I ask is that you don’t get lost in it. Don’t be the “Asshole” cuz it’s the cool thing to be right now. In all honesty no one is saluting you. If you have 101 ways to say how “You don’t give a fu**” or “How many Fu**s you don’t give” them you just might care more then you want us to think.
Time is short and not promised to any of us. I just wish we more of it building each other up and instead of picking at and tearing each other down.
This more so about me getting some stuff off my chest then anything. As for if things can or will change? A man can hope right?
1 comments:
I think you posted an article like last year on your FB profile about employers looking at your Facebook profile as part of the screening process. After that and having an episode with twitter diarrhea I took my communication on the internets down a notch. Not to say that who I am on the internet & in real life are not accurate portayals of who I am...my focus is just different. I think that if you are the type of person who is seeking attention & approval (something we all crave to some extent) and interactions on the internet is the easiest ice breaker for you then you'll take it to extremes without even realizing it....specially when you got all these ppl liking your status posts etc.
It's a learning curve and something relatively new to our generation like you had mentioned in the post...I think social media etiquette will become a popular topic this year as more ppl try to find balance btwn their real life face to face communication & and online interactions.
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