My favorite character Ron Swanson would hate my Internet behavior these days, because I'm looking more like a Tom Haverford.
I like the controlled audiences of my Instagram, Twitter, and Vine. I can create with limited viewership. To all people I don't have to be all one thing, which is how we are in our daily lives. I'd rather not tell the details of my Saturday excursions to my students, and by confidentiality I need to keep the brunt of school matters off the grid.
A blog, on the other hand, some like to visit...maybe not as much as they like these other forms. It's like watching the movie versus reading the book. A tweet allows readers to fill in gaps of the story on their own. They believe tweets based on what is typical of the person tweeting, and then they can still have time to read twenty others in only a minute. But a blog requires a bit more work (if it can be called work?) and that people take time.
I should maybe slow down or at least revisit the blog more, but I'm not sure that giving all social media up is the answer to fixing our broken selves. It seems like when people give it all up, they're attempting some self-actualizing regimen. I guess it makes sense. If what's poisoning you is this multifaceted scope into the lives of your neighbors and it's causing jealousy or deeper longings to emulate their expensive vacations or recreate the styles they have Pinned, then maybe it's best to do away with the poison altogether. But I have a feeling that people like the poison too much to stop.
Why it can be poison: the short bursts of information catalog themselves into our brain quickly, be they amusing or enlightening or shocking, and we can bring this wit up later and entertain our friends. (Basically what people did in Twain's time when they read his epigrams). We don't have to spend much time on it, which we like, because reading and making connections is difficult, and maybe we're so "strapped for time" that if any one item takes up too much of it then we feel as if we're missing out. Perhaps the danger for me is in believing I'm only spending tiny moments in the day viewing one piece, but soon a series of pieces devour time. When that happens, it is time to step back.
It is always smart to assess what you have been creating with the social medium. Products of our work affirm us. We feel meaningful because of it, because others can see it.
I once wrote a blog about my Facebook posts through the year and then explained them more in depth. (Now tell me how narcissistic you can get.) I felt affirmed by that, probably, because it was a way to document my life. I think why people are so fascinated by Facebook or other forms is because their scrapbooks interact and no longer sit on a dusty shelf for wallflowers at a party to page through... I don't know; I'm getting lost in my analogy here, because wallflowers also apply to the Facebook world, but I digress. When the cover image is what becomes the obsession, then the inside is left empty. We have to be careful. Our profile pictures are nice, but we make so many uglier faces in the day. Remember that for other people, too. Jealousy stems from neglecting to see that all people are broken, and instead we focus on the parts of their lives that appear better than our own.
I should maybe slow down or at least revisit the blog more, but I'm not sure that giving all social media up is the answer to fixing our broken selves. It seems like when people give it all up, they're attempting some self-actualizing regimen. I guess it makes sense. If what's poisoning you is this multifaceted scope into the lives of your neighbors and it's causing jealousy or deeper longings to emulate their expensive vacations or recreate the styles they have Pinned, then maybe it's best to do away with the poison altogether. But I have a feeling that people like the poison too much to stop.
Why it can be poison: the short bursts of information catalog themselves into our brain quickly, be they amusing or enlightening or shocking, and we can bring this wit up later and entertain our friends. (Basically what people did in Twain's time when they read his epigrams). We don't have to spend much time on it, which we like, because reading and making connections is difficult, and maybe we're so "strapped for time" that if any one item takes up too much of it then we feel as if we're missing out. Perhaps the danger for me is in believing I'm only spending tiny moments in the day viewing one piece, but soon a series of pieces devour time. When that happens, it is time to step back.
It is always smart to assess what you have been creating with the social medium. Products of our work affirm us. We feel meaningful because of it, because others can see it.
I once wrote a blog about my Facebook posts through the year and then explained them more in depth. (Now tell me how narcissistic you can get.) I felt affirmed by that, probably, because it was a way to document my life. I think why people are so fascinated by Facebook or other forms is because their scrapbooks interact and no longer sit on a dusty shelf for wallflowers at a party to page through... I don't know; I'm getting lost in my analogy here, because wallflowers also apply to the Facebook world, but I digress. When the cover image is what becomes the obsession, then the inside is left empty. We have to be careful. Our profile pictures are nice, but we make so many uglier faces in the day. Remember that for other people, too. Jealousy stems from neglecting to see that all people are broken, and instead we focus on the parts of their lives that appear better than our own.
And now that I have spent time writing this morning instead of scrolling through Pinterest, I'm going to post this link to Facebook, check the numbers of people who clicked the link by the end of the day, and probably go on believing that any of it was no real danger.
