The internet is like a special potion brewed by some of the most experienced tech-witches/wizards known to man. Drink this potion and the effects are one of three things;
1) You expose sides of you that were always there but hidden for fear of looking silly or crazy
2) You become a completely different person
3) Absolutely no effect
...very few fall into the 3rd category
Its a funny thing, the internet...its funny to see the way we interact now, especially with social media developing at a mind blowing rate. What is really, intriguingly funny is seeing how we use the internet and social media to communicate, learn and to entertain ourselves. This I'll have to break down in categories.
Communication
A 5 second call to say "yo check yuh email' or a bbm to say 'u see da tweet deh weh marsha jus mek?, or a DM to make arrangements for a date....son..... a date. :|
Back in the day we used to spend HOURS on the phone...house phone of course...chattin, keeping each other's company, or "watching a show together" over the phone lol. When C&W delivered that phone bill and ur peeps would light your ass UP over the 27 calls made, most of them an hour long that you made to your friends.... *sigh* dont you miss those days? Everything is so impersonal now, so quick. People say its good to adapt to technologies that will make us progress, but at some point we should not forget that being personal is part of what makes us human.
Educating Ourselves
*chuckles* its...EXTREMELY.. (and i use this in want for a more "firm" word) sad that there are a disgraceful amount of people that learn nothing from the internet on a weekly if not daily basis. I dont care of you learn a new dish, how to fix something, how to trade stocks...it doesn't matter....you should LEARN something at every opportunity from this wonderful, evil, magical, deceitful, POWERFUL thing we call the Internet. And other people's business dont count. Hushiez. Its also important to take note about what you learn about yourself, you never know what will pique your interest and become your calling.
Entertainment
Oh what a wicked web we weave. First let me use myself as an example. All my life i've had a way with words and making people laugh, i did it through prep and high school, at Utech, on Facebook, on my blog and now twitter. If its not fun, i don't do it. I used to go on websites that allowed me to see pics taken by satellites of nearby planets, i listen to online radio, play random puzzle games on Shockwave.com and most of all i visit my favourite blogs and watch makeup videos on Youtube. (There are more of course just keeping this short)
Some people however, choose to use the internet to just be a plain nuisance. There are people out there that do the whole, fake profile, search for ways to dig into people's lives, attention seeking, outlandish behaviour, rumour spreading dance. How is it that you can take but add nothing to the engine that powers your sadistic life? Watching people with a gut full of this internet potion, transform into these attention hungry gargoyles, getting a rush off of being......wait.....what ARE they being? Certainly not themselves because a few years ago this isn't how they behaved, this isn't how they created friendships and bonded. Was it?
Of course not. Because the internet gives everyone the same gift, the gift of power, and you can do whatever you want with it.
When it comes to the internet and social media, how we learn from each other, react to people's words/actions, how we communicate with each other and entertain ourselves we must always keep in mind the losses and gains.....and Not just for ourselves.
