I hate social media. All my friends know it. My entire family knows it. And my phone data knows it. I couldn't care less about who follows me or how many people retweeted me. I didn't even get any social media until after I graduated high school.
I have social media now and I use it, so I'm a hypocrite in a big way. It might be largely based on the fact that I was most likely born in the wrong century, but I can't change that no matter how hard I try.
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Technology and social media rule this day and age. I hate it, but it's a fact. You'll turn a corner and there's a 12-year-old filtering her Snapchat photo, and I kind of want to vomit in my mouth, but I keep it in.
You go on family vacations and someone has a camera in your face 24/7 to capture all the moments instead of actually living in the moment.
You get on your phone any possible time you can when the teacher isn't looking.
You pull out Facebook or Instagram any time you pass someone you want to avoid.
You post anything and everything you can so someone will like, tweet, share, or whatever else people can do to show their interest in your post.
It's the first thing we go to as people who were raised surrounded with technology (also known as "the best way to avoid someone").
Despite all of its faults, it has a purpose. It sends a message. It shares your thoughts. Your beliefs. Your interests, even if someone else has a different one. People will follow or friend you because of your thoughts, beliefs and interests because they have the same ones. Or someone will comment and share their own thoughts about a topic you wholeheartedly disagree with.
It's how the world works. Everyone is never going to agree with everything. We all have different opinions, and that's never going to change. That's why world peace is an illusion wrapped up in denial. I'm realistic 75 percent of the time, and I'm being realistic now.
So we lash out in social media. Yes, there are downfalls to lashing out. It's called a Twitter War. I think Kim Kardashian holds the record for the most Twitter Wars, but that's just a guess.
I don't know what a Facebook War is called. I'm going to guess it's less likely to happen because our parents have taken over that social media site. They tend to be more modest about their views over the Internet, unlike their opinionated offspring.
Regardless of the confrontation, there is something kind of amazing about social media. We all get to share our piece. We got to say what we've always wanted to say. There will always be judgment, but that comes with the territory.
We get to find people who understand what we think. We get to read stuff people have written that somehow relates to our lives. We read how influential people have arrived through difficult times to be who they are today. We empathize with those who have had the same experiences as us, and somehow, along the way, the point of social media has been taken over with duck face and twerking. If that's what people want to post, then have at it. It's your opinion. It's the way you want to be perceived, but don't forgot why social media was created. It's not to bully or destroy someone's confidence or tear down someone else's ideas.
It's to create a voice for a cause. To challenge and debate. To form friendships that last a lifetime (in an appropriate safe way, not in a Craigslist Killer way). And no matter how much I want to hate social media and all the garbage that's destroying it, I support what it does for us.
It connects us to others. That's what it should do, and I'll appreciate having it until the day it no longer holds that kind of respect. That kind of connection.
