After much thought and prayer I have decided to leave social media and deactivate my Facebook account. These are the reasons for my decision: 1) Social media has made it incredibly easy to be rude to other people. Insults, put-downs, and outright meanness have become a staple of the social culture. Whether the discussion centers around politics, religion, sports, entertainment, lifestyle or any other subject, people have been desensitized to basic human kindness just because they can’t see or hear the people at their keyboards on the other end of the fiber cable. 2) Some people have endangered their future careers or relationships by playing out their personal drama on social sites. Are we so far gone that there is no thought of the kind of information we share publicly without concern for how that information may come back to haunt us in the future? It seems to me that discernment is a quality severely lacking in the social space. 3) Of course privacy issues have become abundant on all the social media sites, and the games that lure you in with free play are so addicting that once you’re hooked you have to purchase more coins to keep playing when the freebies run out. I enjoy connecting with family and friends that live in other parts of the country, but then again, what happened to writing a letter or picking up the phone? I enjoy posting photos of vacations, children, grandchildren and pets, but putting them in a photo album or a scrapbook and sharing them at family gatherings or sending the occasional photo to someone is so much more personal and special to me. It’s has become a daily obsession for most, being connected at a computer or mobile device, me included. I remember a time when an invite to a special occasion was sent in the mail or a phone call was made and people actually responded, on social media it’s easy for someone to say they’re sorry they didn’t make it because they never saw the invite or because they didn’t get one in the mail to hang on their refrigerator, that they simply forgot. Do I live for the approval of others? Is my ego so fragile that I crave the pavlovian response of warm fuzzy feelings that result from a like, comment, share, favorite or retweet? Do you? What if Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus ceased to exist? Would the human race survive without the habitual behavior we have become accustomed and addicted to in just a few short years? I think yes, we would survive and maybe we would actually start talking to each other again the way God had intended us to. Maybe I’m just old fashioned but It’s for these reasons that I have decided to leave social media. If you need to get in touch with me or maybe just say hello once in a while you can message me before the end of March and I will be happy to share my personal email or phone number with you. I hope to hear from my real friends and family soon.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 23:03:03 +0000
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