Social MEdia.

So. I kind of loathe philosophy  (in the academic sense), but I find myself doing a lot of "philosophizing" (if we can call it that) when I am not worrying about this or that. Today, I discovered my love-hate relationship with social media or social MEdia, rather, since it brings out the narcissist in all of us. I will admit that I am probably guilty of some of the things I am going to mention in my following remarks, but I do also feel that I have a balanced approach to using social media. Sure, I may complain or express excitement every now and then, but I also post a LOT of political content, because I believe that social media serves more of a purpose than just for us to socialize. It's a tool for advocating, for raising awareness, etc.

So why do I hate social media (Facebook more so than Twitter)? Because it's exploitative. We exploit ourselves on it. How many times do we start conversations with "I saw on Facebook" nowadays? Nobody has to tell us anything about their lives anymore, we just check their profile or our news feeds. Why call your friends when they have nothing new to share with you because you've seen it all already? Let's use the common examples of jobs, relationships and children...

Why must I constantly know what your child ate for lunch, what activities you did with them for the day, what word they tried to utter, etc? Don't get me wrong. I love babies and kids. But why are you tracking your child's life on Facebook? What happened to a baby book? If you want to share with your family or close friends, then call them, tell them, have a REAL interaction. Hear the joy in their voice rather than reading their joy in a Facebook comment.

Jobs are a whole other issue, especially among my fellow recent college grads. Jobs are scarce, so it's exciting and a blessing when we get one. But is it necessary to incessantly post how great your job is and how successful you are or are going to be? Call me empathetic, but there are plenty of your unemployed friends who are going to read those and be happy for you, but in turn, feel even crappier about living with their parents, struggling to pay their student loans, or whatever it may be. Hence, why I never made one status when I got my job.

Relationships are probably the worst of all. I don't need to know how much you love your significant other a thousands times. If you have to profess your love to Facebook that frequently, then you come across insecure in your relationship. If you love them that much, then tell THEM, NOT ALL OF US. I don't need to know about every date you go on or see an album full of pictures of you kissing. People are more excited to put their engagements/relationships on Facebook so everybody can like it. Then we learn when they purchase their dress, when they purchase their bridesmaids dresses, where they booked everything, what's for dinner, who the DJ is, who will be taking pictures, etc.

I'm sure some people will disagree with me and think that Facebook is a great way to share things with people they normally may not be able to share with and that it's convenient. But I think that it's just too much. I don't need to know all of those details. And on top of all of that, it makes us narcissistic. We post all of those things because we actually enjoy talking about ourselves & believe that everyone will want to hear about it. Well, I'm here to say I don't care about all of it, just like people probably don't care about half of what I post. And some people not even may care that I posted this. But that's okay. We're too busy living our lives on Facebook rather than actually living them off of it. Our parents survived babies, marriages, jobs without Facebook, so why can't we? Can any of our lives be private anymore?