Contemplative Post
Disclaimer: It is the last day before my holidays are over as I first draft this post. It is likely scheduled for a February release date.
I am a huge supporter of social media, so many great things come of social media, but there is a dark side. I am not naive about other people's practices with social media, for the most part, the people I follow or the people I have in my circle of friends are people I know and have a relationship with them off the computer. Sometimes that relationship is nothing more than greeting each other and finding out how they've been doing in passing in the mall, but there is a genuine connection, a genuine interest to know them.
However, some people are just there to be keyboard commanders and to spread hate around. I tend to just block and delete those people from my social media circle but if they are determined they will continue to come out and cause havoc. Maybe they were bullied in their real life and this is how they attack back, whatever the reason though they are responsible for their choices and need to stop making excuses.
The other dark side is that people are losing the ability to communicate with each other. Everyone is buried in their phones, checking text messages that come in as you have coffee with them, or playing computer games while waiting for supper to arrive at a restaurant. And this isn't even just young kids anymore, these are adults, people in my demographic who grew up in a time when cell phones had a battery bag attached to them! So is it any wonder that kids have a hard time engaging with their peers when all they see adults doing is engaging with their phones?
A couple years ago for lent I took a break from Social Media, it was an interesting challenge, but I found that I had a lot of time for other things. Just now my phone went off and I checked it, instead of letting it wait until I was done my post. It's an addiction and it's one that will have dire consequences for humanity because when we lose our abilities to bond and form real genuine relationships we lose our humanity.
So what's the best way to go about this? How do we solve this problem? I think as adults we need to lead by example, practice being present with our children and only bring the phones out at scheduled times, when they won't interfere with us connecting with the other humans in our lives.
I am a huge supporter of social media, so many great things come of social media, but there is a dark side. I am not naive about other people's practices with social media, for the most part, the people I follow or the people I have in my circle of friends are people I know and have a relationship with them off the computer. Sometimes that relationship is nothing more than greeting each other and finding out how they've been doing in passing in the mall, but there is a genuine connection, a genuine interest to know them.
However, some people are just there to be keyboard commanders and to spread hate around. I tend to just block and delete those people from my social media circle but if they are determined they will continue to come out and cause havoc. Maybe they were bullied in their real life and this is how they attack back, whatever the reason though they are responsible for their choices and need to stop making excuses.
The other dark side is that people are losing the ability to communicate with each other. Everyone is buried in their phones, checking text messages that come in as you have coffee with them, or playing computer games while waiting for supper to arrive at a restaurant. And this isn't even just young kids anymore, these are adults, people in my demographic who grew up in a time when cell phones had a battery bag attached to them! So is it any wonder that kids have a hard time engaging with their peers when all they see adults doing is engaging with their phones?
A couple years ago for lent I took a break from Social Media, it was an interesting challenge, but I found that I had a lot of time for other things. Just now my phone went off and I checked it, instead of letting it wait until I was done my post. It's an addiction and it's one that will have dire consequences for humanity because when we lose our abilities to bond and form real genuine relationships we lose our humanity.
So what's the best way to go about this? How do we solve this problem? I think as adults we need to lead by example, practice being present with our children and only bring the phones out at scheduled times, when they won't interfere with us connecting with the other humans in our lives.
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