social networking « Kimberly Filkins

Media may keep us all connected, but it isn’t making a better world. It isn’t making us more enlightened. It’s just making us meaner.

The news since February has been bad. And I don’t mean the events they’re reporting on, I mean the things that are said, the way they say it, and the way it’s skewed. Everything is geared toward making you afraid of your environment, your federal and local governments, and your own neighbors. To hear the news tell it, we’re all bad people.

And it isn’t just official news media. All of us regular people are doing it to. Whether it’s on your Facebook page, your Instagram, your Twitter, you can’t say anything at all without someone somewhere letting you know that you’re the problem.

YOU are a bad (or whatever insulting, demeaning word you want) person. YOU are this country’s problem. YOU are your neighbor’s problem. YOU are responsible for the actions of everyone else. There is no personal responsibility. We are all just a lump sum of whatever people group we’ve been assigned to by the media and we are to be judged as such.

The ugly truth is we’ve made ourselves afraid. The news may have started it, but now we’re all culpable in spreading the fear. And we’ve got to stop. Take a breath and stop talking. There is no voice of reason right now, not yours not mine not theirs.

This rant doesn’t apply to one side of politics or the other, one news media outlet, or any one person or people group. It applies to everyone. Me, you, everybody.

We are all hypocrites in some way. We are all flawed. We’re all just people doing the best we can. We all need to give ourselves a break and give everybody else a break.

There are so many articles about Millennials and how they have their phones glued to their hands and constantly post statuses and pictures on Facebook and spend way too much time on the internet or playing games on their phones. That made me realize I must be bad at this whole Millennial thing. I don’t take very many pictures (never of meals) and I hardly ever post a status on Facebook. I leave my phone in the other room and only get the text later. Oops. I actually only got a smart phone last year. I only browse Facebook when I’m really bored. They’re gonna take my Millennial card away!

What to do? I guess I should start playing all the games you can get on your phone, take pictures of everything I see, text every contact I have 50+ times per day, and post to Facebook every time I eat or go to the store or my dog does something cute. Because it’s all about me, you know?

Even though these behaviors aren’t limited to the Millennial generation (don’t even get me started on that), it seems to be more prevalent. I’m expected to act that way and since I don’t I guess I’m a little odd. Don’t get me wrong, I love technology. The internet is the greatest thing ever. Ever, y’all. But I also like to watch some TV, read a book, play with my dog, have a conversation with someone face to face, or even over the phone. It’s nice that Facebook has made it possible to keep up with people from your past but some people take it to a ridiculous level. I enjoy articles that my friends share but I really don’t need to see pictures of your food. And I don’t see the point of Twitter at all. But I guess it makes sense. People were already self-absorbed before all this stuff that makes it seem like everyone cares about everything you do.

It’s now gotten to the point that I’m seeing numerous articles that implore people to put down the devices and actually live. That makes me sad. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I haven’t become a slave to my phone because it looks like a lot of people have. People have commented that they have to actively wean themselves off the device. That’s actually a little scary. So maybe I’m not a bad Millennial after all. Maybe I’m just a person who has better ways to spend her time.