MEscovery

Here's the way I see it. This social media thing. I look through a tinted window at all the people I follow. I see their pictures, read their blogs, watch their vlogs and laugh at their snaps. I can see them, but they can't see me. Sometimes, I tap on the window - a comment, a picture, a like - and someone who I follow, follows me back. Then we have opened the window and we can see each other. We can communicate. Each one of the people who I see through my window is facing the other way. Looking out through a window of their own, experiencing their own social media world. They are watching their own little show - handpicked to fit their interests and likes. Occasionally they look around and through the open windows have a chat with their friends, with me or you.  Sometimes we forget that our windows are tinted though. That what I see through mine is very different from yours. Especially when we tap on the window and say "Hi, I see you!" and find that the...

The news. It should be renamed. It's not just informing you about what is going on in the world. It takes the latest occurrences, filters out the uplifting (unimportant?) stuff and slaps the rest of it in your face. Day. Ruined. I've limited myself to the news app on my phone in the morning and evening. And the radio news in the car. That's as much as I can take. Does that make me ignorant? Probably. Do I not care about what goes on in the world? Very much so. Too much probably. It haunts me. Little news snippets. 10 years on. I can still visualise certain news reports. Pictures shown. I don't just watch it and consider myself informed. It soaks into me and goes with me for the day, for life. I should probably learn to separate emotion from the news, but how can you not be devastated and disheartened by so much of the stuff that makes the headlines? It's a trade off between feeling well-informed and depressed. The older I get, the more I have gone into self p...

I remember listening to a radio segment (is that what they are called?) once where the presenter was talking about going offline for a week. No Facebook, no Twitter, no emails, no texts. At the time (admittedly it was a couple of years ago, which in technology/social media years makes it ca. the ice age) I was a bit confused by this concept. The thought that NOT checking in was a challenge. Oh how ignorant I was, young and foolish. It's not that I'm addicted. I just happen to get repetitive strain injury in my hand from using my iPhone too much. No biggie. Happens to all of us doesn't it? Oh wait... Pardon? You say something? Sorry, I was just checking something. Important stuff of course. Isn't it all? The thing is, it's not. It's just a habit. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Zite, Feedly. And repeat. Because in the last two minutes something earth shatteringly brilliant might have been broadcast on one of the aforementioned. Or not, but then at least I know...