Following on from my last post about the culling of blogs, this post is regarding social media. Now, we all know social media is the devil. That’s what I’m constantly reading and hearing anyway. However, I was watching a TED Talk (I can’t remember which one, sorry) but a point that was made struck me as being very true. The speaker stated that in the past, there was always a cut off point for things. For example, you get to the end of a newspaper and you know that it’s finished, you watch an episode of a TV series and you wait until the next week for the next episode. However, we don’t have to wait nowadays, in fact, there is no end. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. they are all endless. Is this healthy?
How many hours have you sat and streamed an entire TV series in one go? Or just sat and lost hours on YouTube or Instagram? Reading the news online – you are constantly in the know about everything. I look around when I’m riding the train and everyone is just staring at their screens, the same for cafes and the same for family gatherings. Imagine a situation and you can bet people are using their mobiles.
With all this said, I am no innocent. I would stare at my screen for hours. Looking at the amazing lives that my friends are leading on Instagram and Snapchat. It’s awful. How many times have you been having a conversation with someone and you tell them something or they tell you something and the response is, ‘Oh yeah, I saw your picture on FB/Twitter/Instagram/whatever’. It shouldn’t be that way and so I made a decision.
I decided that I didn’t want to get rid of social media. I love Weezer as you all know and they are big on the social media, so I wanted to keep FB, Snapchat and Instagram for that. Now, I had my reason though. So, I changed my instagram account and now only follow Weezer, Rivers Cuomo and Scott & Rivers. I unfollowed everyone on FB so that I don’t see their stuff. It has made me so much happier and less inclined to look at my phone, I can’t tell you. So, if you’re feeling overwhelmed with social media, I urge you to think why you want it in your life and then block out all the other stuff that goes along with it. I promise, you will be much happier in the end.
As for TV series streaming and endless news, that’s something that I’m still working on.
Emily