Who you talking to???

"I liked it better when the 'Net was still a novelty, cause now people who ain't found themselves get an outlet, yet don't know how they sound themselves. They like me better when I'm silent and don't have an opinion, pretending to blend in like I'm a minion" -Joe Budden; Rapper


​Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Snapchat. Tinder. Tumblr. Periscope. These are the most dominant social networking sites in today’s society! Millions upon millions of users simultaneously are glued to these sites/apps every millisecond of of every minute of every hour of the twenty-four hours that we are privileged to. "Pulls down to refresh phone" Daily people log on to bounce thought after thought off of stranger and friend alike! I’m sure there are more sites that I’m forgetting but, as the rapper Wale famously named one of his mixtapes, it’s just More About Nothing! Not to be misunderstood, I’m not anti social media. I’m actually a very avid user myself! I just really pay attention to the trend of where it is going, and that trend is what scares me! And there’s not much that scares me​

​In an era of mass information consumption and networking people are talking to each other less than ever. Literally and metaphorically, everything is about doing the least as possible to get the point across. Emojis, acronyms, and 140 character tweets are engineering a social consciousness that being able to thoroughly express yourself is no longer a necessity! Everything is abbreviated. Everything is aggressive. And last but not least, everything is outrage! Whether it’s a disgruntled lover passive aggressively "subtweeting" venting on the timeline instead of having a direct conversation with their mate about their feelings, an inability for the majority of society to respectfully disagree with each other, and how aggressively and abrasively the internet has become as a warzone to hurl insults at people with no recourse.

​“I’m from the 80’s”, late 80’s but 80’s nonetheless, and my generation is the middle ground now. By middle ground I mean, we’re the last generation that was pre- internet but also are naturally affluent in the life of the internet because we have been here and been in tuned with it since it’s inception. This lends to varied perspectives. First, for more perspective, I personally think generations are typically four year blocks. From my scattered unconscious and undocumented research, experiences are typically based on who you were in high school with. Of course there’s a gap between the experiences of a senior and a freshman but that’s the smallest consistent block I’ve noticed so I’m running with that. Back to the topic. My generation is the middle ground, so I’ve seen how people, myself included, communicated with each other pre internet and how it has grown over the years. Modern day communication is more texting than calling. More memes than letters. More emojis even… than words! Everything about communication has been about getting the message across the quickest, not the best. Not the most thorough. Just the quickest. Very cool example of this is the Coach K’s (Duke University basketball coach) commercial where he tells his son to relay a message to former Duke player, Justise Winslow, and his son takes his words and relays them in emojis. No words used. Another example of this would be memes. If you’re out of the loop, google the word “memes” prefaced by any emotion you want and watch the plethora of memes, which are pictures with short captions that are intended to quickly display sentiment, pop up as a result of your search. A lot of times when a girlfriend has gotten her feelings hurt by her boyfriend, don’t get me wrong men do it too, you’ll see her post memes on one or all of the before mentioned apps with captions like “Never give another man a chance to make your woman smile” accompanied by a beautiful woman looking sad. Or if a man thinks his girlfriend should be doing certain duties that she’s not, he may post a meme with a caption like “A real Queen knows how to treat her King” or something overtly misogynistic with a picture of a man holding money or wearing a lot of jewelry. Or a woman performing a sexual or "domestic" act. Disappointment not being the only sentiment memes are used to display but it’s definitely one of the most used. Anything from #RelationshipGoals to #BodyGoals or just pure comedy and insult can be and more times than not are used… instead of words. This also showcases another factor in this which is, now more than ever, people don’t mind putting their personal life on full display for the world to see. People have also gotten into the habit of even when they use their words, they don’t calibrate their aim. This is commonly known as a subtweet. This is when I have a problem with Jamie because he owes me money, it’s past the return date he said he would return it, and he hasn’t called to make the exchange or ask for an extension but instead of contacting Jamie indirectly I tweet “Don’t you hate when people owe you money and you don’t hear from them” or “I promise I’m not helping people anymore”. All the while I know that Jamie is one of my “followers” on these sites and he will almost surely see these post and know I’m talking about him. Which, warranted or not, will only make the issue bigger because no one wants to be sucker punched. This happens all day up and down timelines back and forth until boiling points are reached and two parties are fed up with being indirect or the timeline has figured out the culprit so now guns are blazing directly. But why not tell your boyfriend or girlfriend what’s on your mind? Why not directly address situations amongst friends, or enemies for that matter? How have the limitations of a tweet that is restricted to 140 characters (I’m currently at 4,441 in this piece) and emojis devalued the usage and importance of the English language affected literacy? What happens when the meme is misinterpreted?

​Secondly, when did having an difference of opinion become the mark of the beast? Who’s the best rapper, Jay-z or Young thug? Who’s the better basketball player Jordan or LeBron? If I say Jay-z and you say Nas, is that not ok? If Jay Z drops an album today, and I love it but majority of the people on twitter think Jay Z is old and out of touch does that make me old and out of touch or an idiot or just too biased or was I blessed with my own ears and my own mind? I regularly say Groupthink is the worst epidemic to hit America in my natural life. Groupthink is when people form their opinions, solely or close to it, off of popular opinion? A product of groupthink becoming so prevalent is that when a person that doesn’t aspire to it contests a popular opinion, they’re attacked or dismissed from that moment on. I personally don’t want to live in a world where everyone wants to agree more than they want to think.  I also don’t want to live in a country where you’re exiled because you don’t agree with everything status quo. An example of this is the current case of Bill Cosby, which up until recently have only played out in the court of public opinion. I’m not here to argue guilt or innocence, that’s not my place, my argument is people reserve the right to disagree on it. People also reserve the right to say "I need more information". There’s people who are more educated on the evidence that has been presented who will attack anyone that doesn’t automatically presume Bill Cosby is a rapist. Because the general consensus is, "Bill Cosby is guilty because there’s no way this many women are lying on him." Which very well could be true, but one day watching my timeline and anybody who disagreed with that rhetoric or dared to say “let’s wait until we hear both sides” was immediately attacked or ostracized.  I used this example because of it’s sensitivity. Just follow me.

​This leads into my third gripe, which is, the internet has taken bullying to all time high levels. People that disagree, people that produce content, or just people who challenge a point of view are often, very often, insulted beyond belief online. Have you ever looked in the comment section of any post of content? People have taken the general anonymity of the internet to say the worst things they can think of to people. About people. About people’s work. And about people’s kids. It opens the window to how much unprovoked hate there is that’s being concealed until an outlet lends way to express it. It’s alarming. What’s more alarming is the infatuation that “we” have come to have with seeing and commenting on hardships. How in moments of mistakes or misfortune our society feeds off it. Blogsites, gossip sites, and the “ordinary joe” alike take to keyboards hourly to not only document missteps but to vilify and persecute people. As much as we like to conveniently attempt to forget celebrities are still people, that’s what they are, people! For no reason at all we engage in dialogue completely aimed at inflicting pain or exciting a negative reaction. This practice has been coined as “trolling”. The aforementioned rapper Wale, is a consistent victim of this. Deemed emotional, and living in that reality willingly, Wale has become a target. Not because he wishes ill will on people or because he’s attacking people but simply because they know he, being his “emotional” self, will react! So daily people contemplate the most demeaning, harsh, and provocative insult they can say to him about his appearance or music or prior actions in hopes of getting him to simply respond. This “trolling” practice isn’t limited to Wale or even to celebrities but it’s just a very well known example of a sadistic trend. It’s alarming that this is how we are communicating with each other more and more!

​So to say all of this is unnerving is a bit of an understatement. I worry about how common good will being an endangered concept amongst such a beautiful concoction of people that is the United States. I worry that even though it can be fun, effective, and convenient our growing devaluing of the English language will have a domino effect. That concept is justified by the fact that it’s almost a surprise when I see people use the proper usage of there, their, and they’re! I worry about us becoming a culture where people have been shamed into not thinking for themselves. A culture where dialogue can’t be had unless the parties are like minded without getting disrespectful. I worry that we are consistently losing respect for how we speak to people. How we aren’t being held accountable for our words because the keyboard is a mobile conduit where you can flow insults into a person’s head space without being anywhere near their personal space. These things worry me. I can’t fix them. I can only hold myself, my family, my friends, and my colleagues accountable but that doesn’t feel like nearly enough! I could go on but, in essence, until the majority becomes conscious of these things and the dangers of them, I would just be going on More About Nothing! The irony, I want the group, in this case, to think like me!