My friends, family, and even business associates. They all abuse me into using social media.
It seems everyday I must weather the constant stream of friend requests, messages, and pokes that is social media. If I don’t do it enough, I risk severe consequences in the form of abuse later on. “Where have you been?” “Did you get my message?” “You didn’t respond to my friend request.” “What’s wrong with you?”
I remember when people called each other to talk and social media (which was at one point just MySpace) was something reserved for predators and the naive (ie: their prey). Now everyone tweets. I can imagine telling my grandchildren in the future, “Back in my day, everyone tweeted.” (Or is the correct term twoted?)
I know people that if sent an email, it takes them weeks to get back to me assuming, of course, they ever do. But if I send those same people a message on Facebook, they will respond within minutes sometimes seconds. Maybe I am just old-fashioned, but I prefer genuine human contact over an always-on mechanical connection.
This reminds me of a clip I saw from an episode of South Park. For those who don’t know, South Park started out as a complete mess of obscenity and dumb jokes. However, over the years and now in its 14th season, it has transformed into one of the greatest pieces of social satire around. It is still very hit-and-miss; when it’s good (15% of the time I’d say) it’s brilliant and when it’s bad it’s unbearable. But I think they got the narrative right in this case.
Everything in this clip has happened to me in some way. Honestly.
