I was trying to explain to a young man on the job yesterday how precarious his future may be, due to his obsession with social media. I hope he understood, but I have my doubts. I hope he realizes his ability to make a loan, or gain a better job may not happen, since he's revealed his entire life as an open book.
After many conversations with people, I realized how many people destroy their privacy with constant updates of their life. They throw their security away without realizing the consequences To aggravate the situation, their words are twisted, re-broadcast and eventually become "facts" to others. What could be an innocent comment may end up insulting someone, or jeopardize a future relationship or job.
The young man I was talking to is far from alone. All his friends are the same. They spend way too much time jabbering like birds and too little time examining their thoughts before they reveal things that might best be kept private.
What happens in the future? I think we'll have a generation that shuns social media. The constant updating will become intrusive. Instead of willingly revealing their lives, they'll prefer their privacy. That will be a good thing. People are generally too nosy in the first place. Giving them information they have no right to is madness.
Interesting point. As an adult learner in college, it is absolutely crazy to me how these young people can't get through a one hour class without texting their friends or checking Facebook/Twitter, etc.
ReplyDeleteSome people are even shocked to hear I don't do either one. They are even more shocked to hear I leave my cellphone in my office when I go to class. And up until very recently my cellphone was such an old model it didn't even have a camera in it, much less have 4G connectivity! Horrors!!!! How did I survive?!?
Once, I forgot to turn off my phone and it rang in my purse. My boss was in the office and heard it. When I got back after class she expressed her concern and had been wondering if she should have come and got me and realized she didn't know where my classroom was. She was all the more shocked when I didn't hurry to check my message.
"Aren't you worried something happened?" She asked.
"Well, 20 years ago we didn't all have cellphones and if there was an emergency we just found out about it after the fact and we survived. Besides, even if there was an emergency what would I do about it? If someone died, knowing an hour earlier wouldn't do me or them any more good than finding out an hour later, and if there had been an accident an ambulance would get my family to the hospital faster than I could, so, again, what good would it do to find out and be able to do nothing about it until it was too late?"
She was stunned. But, fact is, we forget that life happens whether we know about it instantly or after the fact. I think all this social media does is give us a false sense of our own importance and prevents us from really feeling secure and capable in our own right. It's the very worst form of peer pressure imaginable.
I'll get down off my soap box now.
Your post is too important to lose in the comments. I made a post to highlight it.
DeleteI'm honored. Thanks, Jess.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm honored. A reply that describes so well what I'm trying to impart is a jewel.
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