It occurred to the other day as I was humoring myself with
my own witty banter (in my head of course, as only a small portion of my
thoughts get written down) that the fundamental fault with social media is that
at any given time, you can Tweet, Snap Chat, Comment on line and a million
other forms of expelling verbal diarrhea within seconds of the thoughts coming
to you. I had this thought because at least 90 percent of my mental
rumblings could seriously get me into trouble and/or create confusion with which
I would have to then explain myself (which is something I hate doing).
You see so many celebrities and common everyday folk who create online shit
storms with the comments or videos that they post on line whereupon if they
waited a 12 to 24 hour period before posting, would they think it through and
reconsider? Take today for instance. I was thinking to myself
how amazing it would be to go to a local craft beer festival but it would be an
even better experience if I could employ a driver to take me to and fro.
Alas, my inside voice became my outside voice and I abruptly stated “I
need to hit up an AA meeting so I can make new friends who don’t drink who can
drive.” Ummmm, three of my coworkers literally stared at me with faces that
looked like I just said I was going to get naked and jump off the roof of the
building, while eating a sandwich. I then realized that this was one of
those comments that I perhaps should have kept to myself. Could you image
if that comment got Twitterized? Oh boy would I get roasted.
Those are the type of things that people really need to pause first before
hitting post. I am pretty sure the social media generations who are
running around right now have never been taught to think first before posting.
Shouldn’t it be the social media platforms duty to have a message pop up when
you hit post that says – “ARE YOU SURE?” Of course they should add a
smiley face after the question mark so the user doesn’t get all teary eyed and
upset because their media app asked them a question that questions them……
oh goodness.
There are so many times I hear about a comment that has been
posted where everyone and their dog decides to get all pedestal, high and
mighty and beat the person who posted the comment down. People really,
honestly need to chill the eff out. Not only has social media
developed a generation of people who feel it’s their right to comment and
provide opinions on EVERYTHING but it also has unearthed a whole grassroots
generation of people who clearly have no bloody sense of humor! We really
should go back to the way it was back in the day when you had to hand
write a letter to the editor of a newspaper, who may or may not publish
it. (Note: for anyone reading this who is under 25, a newspaper is actual
papers, bunched together with stories written in it using full sentences AND
actual paragraphs. Yes, we had paragraphs back in the day. Oh, and
punctuation. Those were the days……..)
