seeds & roots
social networking
A friend of mine sent me this picture, and it made me laugh from gut. I thought I’d post it for all of you to see. In the age we live, the technological avenues through which can communicate have grown to become more abundant than history has ever known. Among such avenues are the various examples of social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc…) These sites facilitate the exploration of the realms of virtual interaction with the many faces around us. On one hand; these new methods of communication contain many exciting possibilities, but on the other hand; it’s becoming easier and easier for us to disengage with reality and get lost in ourselves. I think this t-shirt design reinforces my point.
My official stance on “social networking” is this: It’s not for me. Here’s why I deleted all my accounts to these sites.
- These sites suck me in. I get addicted. I tend to lean towards the stalker side of the diagram above. Yep you do too. Don’t lie. And if you’re not lying, don’t be too quick to get self righteous because that just means you’re probably more of a narcissistic than a stalker. It’s ok. We’re all messed up in our own little ways.
- More and more of these sites are keeping your personal information and selling them to advertisers. I’m sick of being assaulted by ads for pornography and housing loans. The only person I need to see naked is my wife, and I don’t need to accumulate any more debt…
- We all tend to filter the information that others can see only to present cheap caricatures of who really are. Which begs the question, “Is the person I’m interacting with even real?”
- These methods of social interaction can often lead us to an anemic real social life. Whatever happened to us hanging out with each other without a some sort of screen around? Example: There were times this year my roommate and I sat in the same room for an hour and said not a word to each other because we were both checking our Facebook accounts. Oh the tragic irony!
- These sites tend to distract me from the things that I value more. I read less, I made less music, I felt less creative, I seemed a whiter shade of pale. I wasn’t to far from eating fish, while checking my accounts, and calling them “my preciousssssssss.”
I’ve come to the conclusion that the cons outweigh the pros. It was my decision to delete all my social networks accounts (myspace, facebook, twitter, etc…) that led me to the creation of this version of “seeds and roots”. Once I got my head up and away from my computer for a moment it led me to doing something I hadn’t done in a while: being creative!