This cartoon got me thinking. Geezers, do you ever wonder about being on social media too much? Do you wonder why people love it so much? We are a wired society. We do Facebook, or Tik-Tok, or Insta-Gram or texting. I'm a geezer and I grudgingly facebook, but I don't want to use facebook. (Is there a 12 step program to get off of social media?) Tis a problem. Social media can be so helpful. It can help you find answers to questions like "where is the best hair salon in town?" OR "who knows a good electrician?" These are important questions and asking locals is a good way to find the information. But one thing leads to another, and suddenly, you're addicted. Gees, do you want to have your nose in social media all the time and not see the people right in front of you? I vote for real, flesh and blood people...but that's this geezer.
Another downside is all the ads you get on social media after you ask a question. Once you ask for a handyman or a beautician, the algorithm, always lurking in the background gathering information about you, tries to connect you with a ton of such folks. I want one recommendation, not 200, and I'd like it from someone I know and not an anonymous algorithm.
That makes we wonder what other algorithms are gathering information on us? What other stuff "knows" more about you than you know about you? I'm sure your cellphone rats you out. Can you imagine all the secrets your cellphone knows? With a thousand contacts, 352 apps, and a million pictures it knows what you've done, who you've called and where you've been for the last several years.
How about your car? What does it give away? Does the car talk to your cellphone? To your doorbell? Or the big screen TV? How about the thermostat on your HVAC system? All of these are "smart." Can you imagine the riveting conversation between your car and your doorbell? Or, your TV and the HVAC? Are all these "things" just one big interconnected mass of information?
It's a wired world geezers. To make it worse, we were some of the people who helped wire it. We had no idea where it (or is it, IT) would go, but it went far beyond what I thought it would. Today as I was water walking with my friend, I was thinking it's impossible to be connected to social media in a swimming pool. It's a safe non-wired place. It's wet. Holding a cellphone in a pool does not work. YAY. I can be free from IT when I walk in the water. Where else can I be IT free? Help me think about that. This leads to another set of questions: Do I want to be IT free? How long do I want to be IT free? Is it fun to be IT free? I have no idea what the answers are to these questions. Heck, I don't even know all the questions? I know that social media is here and it's going to stay -- at least until something bigger and better comes along. In the meantime, I'll cope with my friends who look like the fellow in the cartoon. I will love them even if I secretly wish they would turn off the cellphone and talk to a real person. Remember, we're all in this together.
PS.. I give credit to Walsh, as I think that is the name on the bottom right corner of the cartoon. That geezer nailed it.
No comments:
Post a Comment