I haven't posted in a while. There have been significant changes in my life.
I had a kid.
Yes, I am now a father to a baby boy we named Theodore. :) So, I haven't really had time to post in a while. However, as I browse social media, I was inspired to post. Perhaps, it was my Facebook page (also named "The Editorialistic View") informing me that I hadn't posted in a while. And conveniently enough, Facebook (more specifically my news feed on Facebook) entered my cross hairs.
So, I will start this post on what Facebook means to me. After all, I have been a member of Facebook since it became more than just a Harvard thing. When I signed up, you still had to be a member of a college, and being I was a student at Dakota State University, I had to use my college email address to sign up. Now, it has expanded to a social networking platform that dominates the field. People have even created Facebook profiles for their pets. At first I signed up just to be in contact with others... to make friends.
Now, Facebook (and all social media for that matter) has been a way to keep in contact with family and friends I, otherwise, don't communicate with on a daily basis. Facebook is a great way for me to see pictures of friends and family. I have family with kids that I see pictures of on occasion. I get comical and humorous quips from people just out to give their peers (as I'll colloquially refer to "friends and family" for the duration of this) a reason to smile or chuckle. I get to see what is on people's minds. If they are down or sad, they talk about it. Sometimes the chuckle helps sad people feel better.
And now, social media has turned. It is no longer the platform of keeping up with peers. It is now political ramblings, memes from people who can't spell, chain posts, and links upon links from sponsored content that tricks you into never ending pages of ads and overly drawn out articles that are there just for ad revenue.
For one, I will admit, I didn't vote this last election. I didn't really care who won or who lost. It was a choice between an egotist, or a person whose soul purpose was to be the first female president. None were really the best for the nation, and I didn't feel shame for not voting. I've always felt my vote doesn't matter because the votes are determined by the electorate, not by the people. If looking at popular vote, Hillary would have won it. But I didn't care then, and guess what? I still don't care. Political posts are ones that I either: A) quickly scroll past or B) hide from my news feed. If a person's posts are nothing but political and nothing I care about, they disappear magically from my feed. Now, they may argue, "But this is stuff you need to know," or "This is important for what is going on right now." I do watch the news and do read news articles. So, it really isn't THAT important for me to read on Facebook. I prefer my news without bias and complaints.
Memes are now part of social media culture. For those not in the know, they are images with funny captions. And they quickly become viral. To me, they are sort of a plague. People post memes that are horribly misspelled, grammatically incorrect, and say NOTHING relevant about them. They are a post that, to me, lacks substance. They are a lazy post that can be humorous and actually worth seeing, but they can also be stupid and completely pointless. In my opinion, memes would be posted with thought, not just thrown about because you hadn't posted something in 5 minutes. They should be intelligent. Memes exist that have false quotes from celebrities who have passed on. Those are the worst kind in my opinion. Those are memes that stick words into people's mouths who don't have the ability to deny or refute those quotes. There are A LOT of memes, for instance, that have quotes that George Carlin allegedly made (and almost all of those quotes are fake). If a person has passed on, no more memes should be created with his/her likeness. They should be retired and not remembered in that disrespectful manner.
Chain posts are just dangerous and any one who passes those on should stop. Chain posts create long lists that can be used for malicious purposes. It is a form of farming that can result in people getting spam. A lot of these posts are used for "like-farming." They tug at people's heart strings and cause people to like the posts. After a lot of people have liked the post, they change the content and it can either download spyware to a person's computer or link to spammy content. For more information on this, click here to read an article on "like-farming." There are some legitimate ones out there, who use like-farming as a way to generate buzz about their business and draw in more customers, but there are others that are there just to put spam on your computers. Do not share posts that are not trust-worthy, and do not tag me in like-farming posts.
The sponsored click-bait that Facebook throws on my news feed is really frustrating. I can't help myself to occasionally reading them, but they are stupid at the same time. I, actually, feel a sense of shame for reading them. Luckily there are people who have ventured into the abyss and summarized the post so I don't have to waste my time on 20-30 needlessly drawn out, ad-infested pages of crap just to get to the one relevant page at the end. I don't have the time, I don't have the patience, and I don't want to be spammed with ads every single page I read. Trying to read those on my phone causes my phone to claim to have a virus and redirect me to a fake "Google Play" page trying to get me to download spyware to my phone. Those posts NEED to STOP. The problem is, they take up a good chunk of my news feed.
Now, if dumb memes, political ramblings, chain posts, and click bait sponsored content was to disappear from my news feed, I would find that my news feed is pretty empty. It may seem like a sad existence, but it isn't. The occasional relevant post that I get from people does brighten my day. It really doesn't take much. Social media still does remain a great way to keep in contact with people whom I don't see or talk to on a frequent basis. Even the occasional meme does have relevance if properly placed (and properly spelled). Sometimes, how a person is feeling is best summed up by a meme. There are posts that I feel have no place on Facebook or any other social media site, but it is one of those things that can't be helped. While there are people who are obsessively political, they may also be peers that I can't just unfriend, block, or hide because in the end, they are still peers and occasionally they'll post something that is relevant. I just choose not to read.
So, I choose to use social media to do what I feel it is intended for. To be social, in a manner that is most comfortable for me. I like being able to keep in contact with peers I don't see, and I will continue to use it for that purpose. Feel free to comment to me every once in a while, and I will respond. Feel free to respond to this post if you have an opinion you want to share. Thank you for taking the time to read!!
