It occurred to me today that so many people are using social media, but I’m not sure what the point is.

Just over two weeks ago now, I decided to start using a different social media platform for advertising the existence of my blog posts. As a result, I’ve now been spending more time on that social media platform. And it’s got me to thinking about why we use social media in the first place.

What’s the point?

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Part of me wonders about the number of people on social media, just looking for attention. I think that part of what I’m doing on social media falls into this category, at least when it comes to my blog. I wonder how many other people are looking for attention via what they  post on-line.

Psychologically speaking, I think that we all seek attention; we all want to be noticed and it’s reaffirming for our egos to have people, on social media or IRL, pay us some regard as fellow people. I don’t know that it’s necessarily a bad thing, but I do think that most things, in excess, are bad, including seeking attention.

This can especially get dangerous when it causes us to foster relationships with other people who might then become more important to us than our loved ones. When those who deserve our attention and affection in the utmost are being starved for that attention, because we are out seeking the attention of people on social media, an imbalance occurs that can wreak havoc on our personal lives.

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Part of me wonders about the number of people on social media just trying to start fights.

I don’t know about you, but it seems like the cool thing to do these days is to say something on Facebook or Twitter that is guaranteed to get people enraged, just so that they’ll comment on your posts. Then, we can have a ‘vargument’ (virtual argument).

Varguments are so much fun, aren’t they?!?! You get to vargue with people, most of which you haven’t spoken to –in real life– in years, because they think that your post is absurd and you think their objection is equally absurd. Then, other people –friends of yours and friends of theirs– can get pulled into the vargument. Before you know it, thirty or forty or ninety people are hurling counterarguments (rarely) and insults (much more common) at each other in a freakin’ free-for-all.

What a good time!!!!!

Do you know how many people’s minds get changed from varguments?

None. No one ever.

If I’m wrong, then show me that I’m wrong. I’ll wait.

So, to combat this, I’ve recently gotten into the habit of pausing before commenting. You might want to try this, especially if you have a tendency to engage other people in varguments on social media. It’s done wonders for keeping me out of varguments. What I do is this: I’ll type out a witty and intelligent comment, sure to get the vargument started, and then I sit and wait for a moment. Then, during that moment, I come to realize that I don’t really want to vargue with anyone.

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Part of me wonder about the number of people on social media who are just bored.

I don’t mean to sound flippant, but social media consumption does not qualify as a hobby, despite what people might currently believe.

I wonder if people would be on social media a little less often if they found something better to do with their time. Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that sometimes, in a down moment or two, social media is the perfect way to waste a few minutes. What is hard for me to understand is how it seems like many people are on their social media accounts pretty much constantly.

Learn to paint, read a book, get outdoors, hit the gym; there have got to be some better ways to spend so much of the time of which people seem to have so much. This, in and of itself, is interesting, if you think about it, because if you’ve ever heard someone complain about not having enough time to do XYZ, but you’ve noticed a significant amount of their time gets spent on social media, then you may have identified the source of the problem.

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Part of me wonders about the number of people on social media, just sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong.

If you are on a social media platform, checking out what it is that other people are doing with their lives, just so that you can later be johnny-on-the-spot when someone asks, “Whatever happened to so-and-so?” Or, if you are using social media to keep up with the neighbors across the street –you know, those neighbors that you wouldn’t bother to cross the street to talk to– you might have a problem.

Of course, this particular exchange is a bit of a two-way street; if you get upset that people stick their noses in your business, step one might be to stop putting all of your crap on the internet for people to peruse. You can’t blame people for knowing everything that there is to know about you when you publish everything that there is to know about you for people to see.

Another caveat along these lines should include the following: getting upset with people when they’ve got something to say to you about what you’ve posted online is a little like getting upset about somebody shooting you with the gun that you gave them and using the ammo that you supplied to them.

At least, if you are going to share yourself with people online, you could do them the courtesy of not getting upset with them when they have something to say.

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I used a gun metaphor in that last section, and when I stop to think about it, that’s kind of fitting, because I think that social media is probably a bit like a loaded gun.

When you think about all of the bad things that can happen with a loaded gun, it hardly seems worth having it. Of course, we all know what the reason is for having a loaded gun, just as we all know how badly that can turn out, WITHOUT CARE. That’s the difference, really
–> BEING CAREFUL.

Just as responsible people with guns in their houses understand how important it is to be careful, to educate everyone in the house about the guns, and how to use them, and how to be safe, we need to think about social media along these same lines, I believe. Social media is a loaded gun. It can certainly have legitimate uses, but the danger involved in its misuse requires education and training.

Otherwise, you end up with damage and casualties.

Sound like anything you’ve recently seen on Facebook or Twitter?