Social Media Was Supposed To Connect Us Not Divide Us

Social Media Was Supposed To Connect Us Not Divide Us

I’m glad I use Facebook for what it is supposed to be for, post pictures of myself during my life, and talking about robots! Having no drama in my life is the way to live. My advice if you want to debate somebody, debate the person in real life. It’s almost impossible to debate someone with text. Human beings use nonverbal clues to give us information. I would suspect it was rare anybody changes their opinion due to a social media post. Enjoy your life instead of living on social media! 

When social media started, no one knew what to do, so there were a lot of pet photos. People would write jokes on their friend's walls. They laughed and move on to the next joke and smile at the post the next day. It was a simpler time for sure.

Jump to today, divisive posts are common, posts are made to antagonize their friends or frenemies, an innocent post that was taken out of context leads to a comment battle, suffice it to say common ground on social media between friends is rare. Why did this happen? How did this happen? Is there any way to change this?

All technologies overtime evolve, from the earliest computers to the fastest computers to cell phones to the smartphones that we all carry around, how we view and use these devices affects society and our culture. Technology has allowed all of us to make content relatively easy. A simple photograph, a short blog post, a short video, are all a few clicks away to produce on our smartphones. Once making content became easy for population, meant that every person with a smartphone is now a newspaper, a radio station, a TV station, a commentator on any subject, and a host of other media entities.

Frankly, it's just too easy to make content today. Which could be used for good. People today are able to share their voices on many issues, that in the past, only a few close friends would have heard. Was that a better system? To share your strong beliefs with the people that know you the best. Honestly, most of us have friends on social media we have never met in person. Or if we do know them, we only know them on a surface level. Perhaps having a long-term friendship with a person can help you understand their point of view better than a few words on a social media page form a person you barely know.

As I stated earlier, it's rare to change someone's opinion or believes with a few words on social media. My suggestion is the talk to your friends directly. On the phone right now during COVID-19 or using some video communication software. Of course, once COVID-19 is over the best option is to talk to your friends face to face. Seeing a person's body language, hearing their tone when they express an opinion, a brief smile or frown as a debate their points, all are missing with words typed on a social media page.

Also, it's harder to let your friends know that you care about them virtually. In real life, sometimes a brief smile, a handshake, a hug, even a quick wink, can let your friends know how much you really care about them as a person. Emojis can only help out so much to share this vital information online.

I would ask every person that posts controversial topics on their social media pages to really consider what they're trying to do. If they want to anger a certain population of people, is this really the best format to achieve your results? What's the purpose of your post? Could you reword your post in a positive manner and achieve better results?

Love is better than hate. Being friends is better than being enemies. Talking is better than screaming. Listening is better than closing off communication. Caring for your friends and family is better than not caring for them.

Please go out there and enjoy your life. Care for yourself. Help others with every opportunity that you can. And smile. Having the chance to live on this third rock from the Sun It's not something everybody has the chance to do. And in three million years will anybody even care what you are thinking? 

Anyways, if you haven’t seen The Rise Of The Robots go to 

Rock and Roll!!!!!!!

The Internet - Is It Worth The Good It Does?

The Internet - Is It Worth The Good It Does?

I saw the beginnings of the Internet in college in 1992.  That was before web browsers and it was mainly text.  In 1993, I saw Mosaic, the first web browser, and now I could see text and pictures online.  It was slow, however, I knew if they could speed this up, it was going to take over the world!  The Internet is so vital to us today, the thought of not having it is unimaginable.  How would we all have dealt with the COVID 19 quarantines without the Internet?

Because of the Internet, many were able to telecommute, children received their schoolwork and watched instruction, streaming movies and music soothed us when we could not leave the house.  We used it to get food, groceries, other vital items delivered to our doorsteps.  And so many other things we can not live without came from the Internet.

We got our news from the Internet.  Today, we have access to so much news, it is impossible to take it all in.  A half a century ago, we received news from a newspaper or the nightly news on television.  Today, it is all from the Internet anytime you look at your cell phone.  

Social media and applications once mainly used to post photos, mainly cat photos, and things you did in your life, like what you ate today, became areas where links, news, photos, and memes from all over the world were debated.  When people just posted a million cat photos, nobody cared too much.  Today if a meme that you disagree with gets posted, it can receive thousands of comments in a few hours. 

Things you would never say to someone's face, are posted without much thought on how it may affect the person that posted.  The old saying, 'Don't say anything at all if you can't say anything nice' is long gone.  It is easy to forget that there is a human being on that account.  Someone that has people that care about them.  Someone that may be going through a rough patch in their life.  Someone that, like you, is not perfect.  

If we could live the life of someone else for just a few hours, we would better understand their responses or actions.  Hate is a strong word, I rarely use it.  I may dislike someone's actions or comments, however, I do not hate them.  

When a word is used so much, it has little effect.  When I was a kid, you never heard profanity in public.  So when you did, you looked over because something happened.  Today, I hear and see profanity so much, I do not really notice it now.  Curse words have lost their effect because they are overused today. 

Disagreements are a part of life.  We all have had different backgrounds, life experiences, education, been to different parts of the world, jobs, commutes, and so on and on.  Life is compromised.  Everyone that is in or has had a long term relationship, understands that without compromise, there is no relationship.  In a society, there is a need for compromise on things the group disagrees with.  Try to find common ground, and grow from there.  If the goal is to work on an issue, communication is more effective than not talking.  Two people can look at the same thing or event and share different experiences.  That is not wrong, that is life. 

Be the person that can study an issue, read and learn about it, then make informed decisions.  Share you research with others in a respective manner.  If they are rude to you, you can always take the high road.  Learn from all of your experiences and question why you feel and believe in the things that you do. That is growth, and growing as person makes understanding humanity easier.  With age comes wisdom.  With wisdom comes empathy. 

Remember, we are humans.  Not perfect, we have flaws, and most of the time we try to make the world a better place.  Maybe not with big gestures, maybe they are little things. Like smiling at someone that needs it. Take the time to listen to someone that needs to talk to another human being face to face.  Help someone that needs a hand.  Be that positive light that humanity needs now, more than ever with all that is going on in the world.  Not just in 2020, but for the rest of your lives. 

There is love for all of us, if you will try to see it.  Forgiving is good.  Letting things go that do not really matter a million years from now, will make today better.  Use technology for good and not for bad.  Put down your technology devices from time to time and talk to a human in real life.  Look at them, see they are not much different than you are.  Feel better?

The choice is yours.  I know what I am going do to make the world I live in a better place for the future.  I hope you will think about it, and do so too.  See you in person soon, please wave hi to me and I will do the same.

Computed

The Unknown Road

The Unknown Road

Over the last few months, we have been traveling on the unknown road.  We did not pick it.  We would have not chosen it.  We do not want to go where it is taking us.  In life, you often do not have a choice of what happens.

Pushing yourself is to the unknown limit gives you a measuring stick on what you can handle in life.  You will never know how much you can lift, how far you can run, how much of the world falling apart you can take, until you try.  Growing up with grit means, whatever happens, you can make it.  Perhaps even thrive in it.

In the future, you will look back and judge yourself.  You are the only one qualified to do so.  We do not know what you have done, what you have gone through, only you do.  If you can be honest with yourself, will you like what you do with your life?

You can sit and watch streaming TV for weeks and months on end.  You could also work on a degree.  Learn a new trade.  Learn another language.  Learn something that will make your life better either professionally or financially.  Or just watch TV, it is your choice.

Today with technology, we have access to a boundless amount of information and knowledge.  Any subject is only a few keystrokes away from a lesson for us to view.  We only have a handful of seconds in our lives, use them wisely.

Computed

Getting To Know Oneself During The Quarantine

Getting To Know Oneself During The Quarantine

I'm in the shadows.

The weeks have flown past us over during the quarantine.  Is it Monday or Tuesday?  Is it night or day?  When was the last time I shaved or had a haircut?

So many questions, right now, we do not have many answers.  When can we get a haircut?  Nobody knows.  There is a freedom to let it all go. 

When you do not know something, and there is no way to figure it out, you can either worry about it or let it go.  In life, there are many times when you have no control over your future, right now is one of those times.  People want to work.  People do not want to get ill.  What is the correct answer?  

Perhaps in the future, we will know more to measure it.  Maybe even to answer it.

At some point, things will go back to normal.  Will they?  Or is the future full of face masks, hand washing, social separation, and no large crowds?  Every time we go into a store will they measure our temperature?  Will, we only listen to a concert online, see art shows, and plays from a distance.  What about sports?  What jobs will remain?  Can robots help us?

There are so many questions to ask.  You can use this time to work on anything you or want or do nothing at all.  That is one thing you have control over.  That novel, piece of art, album is not going to make itself.  That room that you need to clean, yup, you have to do it yourself.   The grass outside is not stopping growing.  Your car can use a tune-up too.

The future is the undiscovered country, only this time it is undiscovered something.  We do not know what it will look like.  Is the future even bright any more?  I think it will be.

All I can say about it is that we as humans will face it and deal with it.  There is no choice.  Humanity will go on.  What we make of it, is on us.  

Humans have been on this planet for a while and before written history, have faced plagues,  disease, and many other challenges.  

I look forward to the future.  Together, we can make that future bright!  Smile, it will work itself out.  I feel it in the air.

Computed.