Social Media

Social Media (and Why I #H8 It)

There was one reason why I got a Facebook. I can tell you the exact year I got one. It was in 2010. Some time in the Spring/Summer time. I had just seen The Social Network. If this were the review of what is tied for my 3rd favorite film of all time, I would say that it is a masterpiece that makes anyone who watches it 3% smarter just from the first scene alone. But, unfortunately, this is not a review of the amazing motion picture. These are my thoughts on the website the film is about and social media in general. 

I used to be a constant Facebook user. I would post regularly and I would look at it for hours upon hours on long, boring summer days. Flash forward to the present day and I loathe Facebook and social media in general. (I know it is the bandwagon idea to hate on Facebook. I know this. But the cliche, overused ideas are cliche and overused for a reason. Sometimes, it's just true.)

Facebook wasn't the most special thing back in it's heyday. You just look at your friends post about their day or their ideas or just boring, run of the mill, life stuff and it was all well and good. (Granted, I started my Facebook in middle school, and middleschoolers don't have many things going on other than "I just beat that level in Resident Evil 4!" or some mundane thing like that.) Now it's turned to nothing but people sharing posts of video recipes, generic political puff pieces, or "challenges" that get in your face in the hopes of you liking or sharing some poor sap's status. 

Many social media sites have their own flaws as well. Snapchat is nothing but filtered selfies and videos of either partying or doing absolutely nothing whatsoever. (Granted I am a college student who follows other college students so the content probably shouldn't be unexpected) Instagram is attempting to be the same thing as Snapchat (and it is sucking at it.) Twitter is my favorite of all social media sites because, if someone is going to say something incredibly stupid, it is at least 140 characters or less. 

I just don't know what happened. I don't even hate Facebook or Twitter or Snapchat or Instagram (okay, maybe Instagram), I just hate that, whenever I log on, I just scroll through nothing but unimportant or uninformed stuff for 30 minutes to an hour every day. I'm all for giving everyone a voice and allowing to be heard but did we really need to know that you were #feelinglikemyself when you got your #starbucks and that you are getting #whitegirlwasted tonight with you and your buddies all posed with a raging #nonoword ton of puppy dog, black and white sepia filters? (You don't look cute. You look like a domesticated animal....literally). Are your thoughts about the clickbaity title of an article (because you were "too busy" to read the actual article itself) really so important that you have to share it to everyone?

                         

One day, I wrote an article titled "How I Feel About Donald Trump and Today's America" on OdeysseyOnline and I shared it on my Facebook feed. The article was one of my most viewed articles I had written on the site. It wasn't even about Donald Trump (It was about my favorite TV show The Leftovers). I am aware that political news is what's "in" right now (shouldn't it always be? Why do I care about which celebrity might be secretly gay?) So I made a clickbaity title in the hopes that more people would read about my favorite tv show. And it worked! (and I got many angry messages.)

I understand the appeal to social media, but, if I didn't need it for my classes and distributing my written works, I wouldn't use a social media account. We are getting a little too nosy about other people's business and I think it should stop. I don't care about most people's lives on social media and I don't really care about the things they share (they can SOMETIMES be funny (but it usually isn't.))