Social Networks Qualms

Social networks can be useful, but these days they are becoming useful for all the wrong reasons. Below is a list of qualms I have with the practice as a whole, followed by a pretty poignant video thanks to Brady Quinn. 

As always, no shade, just my interpretation.

“Low…”

We used to use the term low-key to describe situations that needed to remain secretive, but more so within a select group of people. It was seldom used as using the term was an oxymoron, but when sketchy or need-to-know behavior was sure to occur we utilized the phrase to keep our friends abreast of the situation. These days the “-key” has been dropped for the more simplistic “low” which makes sense, but it has become easier to use the term—not a good thing. If you walk outside in the middle of December with your wheat timbs, bubble pullover, hoody and skully on, there is nothing "low" about the fact its cold outside. If you take the time to tweet something personal while trying to come off as witty on a social network, but preface it with "low," it is not low; everyone of your friends/followers knows. The subtle nuance in the usage of this word is killing me, but for some reason it has become acceptable.

Be Here Now
We've gotten more focused on our phones than the people around us. I go out and see many of my peers enamored in whats going on in the phone as opposed to whats going on around them. We refuse to live in the moment these days, preferring to troll the world of social networks as opposed to having conversations and interactions with those around us. I fall victim too as my phone serves as a sort of intermediary when there is a lull in a conversation, but at least I recognize my failure to live in the moment. 

Posting
No shade, but how do you have an insane number of tweets and are not being paid for it? How do you constantly post pictures of yourself but don't have a flourishing modeling career? The phrase, "I just tweet random stuff because..." is no longer valid and never really was, because there bigger thrills in this world. Some will make the argument (insert celebrity) tweets all day, and that's fine for them, but what about you? How has twitter paid off in your life? By all means do you, but I'm just curious and hopeful that it has lead to some monetary gain. 

Instagram

I seldom post on my Instagram account, and will not take this avenue to say follow me on Instagram—I’m better than that and so are you; if you’d like to check me out its pretty easy to find. Anyway, for anyone with a brain and some common sense IG is simply an avenue for people to post pictures of their “goings on” in a social setting. Say you go to a political event or find yourself in the northern part of Phoenix, Arizona checking out the mountain ranges, snapping a photo and posting it for your friends/followers to see seems an innocent way to bring others into the fun you’re having. I observe my friends pictures and I have my own likes, mostly fashion and spur of the moment dopeness, but I’m not into the self-serving picture taking—It’s not wrong, it’s just not me. I've been fly (heard from other people) for awhile, I don't need IG to catalog my clothes especially brand names, unless I'm getting paid for it or I'm helping a friend out. I don’t understand how a person can have hundreds of pictures of themselves? I don’t understand how every picture you take is IG worthy? I don’t understand the conscious need to take pictures of everything, from your shitty food to pictures of a half-full bottle of Powerade? Years from now, I’ll look back at my account and not care about the likes more so the collection of things that I felt needed to be posted. Oh and odds are, it took you more than one shot to get that bathroom pic of yourself just right because one of your real friends responded to you saying, "take me picture" with "bruh, you're kidding right?" 

Emotional Outbursts
Social networks are not the place to air out all your dirty laundry. As a man, I wish I could point this directly at women, but for some reason there has been an influx of guys either camped outside of Marvin's room or shitty because the other guy sent a Marvin's room-like messages and it worked. Scrolling my timeline I'll see some relevant tweets about politics or money followed by something about how someone's angry or shitty about something. All the relationship tweets are precious, but just as he/she tweets about how good something is, on the converse they'll be quick to tweet about the bad parts. What is that subliminal message going to solve? It demonstrates passive aggressiveness and the glaring fact that you're emotionally unstable. I understand the need to “keep it real,” but “keeping it real” can go devastatingly wrong when a few clicks of some buttons can change everything. It seems we should be casting ourselves in the best light as opposed to pointing out the negatives. There are these things called journals and in the journals all those thoughts that would be better served private can flourish, because putting that shit on twitter honestly makes me look at people differently. I don't want people to have the ability to put me into a box after looking at my social networking activity and if you don't believe this can happen, if you don't believe someone can paint a decent picture of the things you like and gravitate towards, you have missed it.

 Kansas City Chiefs Quarterback Brady Quinn on the role of Social Networks and Relationships.