Thoughts of a Random Nature

I’m a very impatient person. Always have been and probably always will be. I wish I possessed the trait of patience, because it could save me a lot of grief. With the internet, apps, and all of the little gadgets we use in our everyday lives, I’ve been thinking of how we’ve become a snappy and impatient culture over the past few decades.

Granted, I don’t think I was around when the microwave became a popular kitchen item, but I’d venture to say that it was a giant step towards our society wanting things in thirty seconds or less. With a microwave, taking a significant chunk of time to cook a meal becomes unnecessary. Just pop the dinner in for five minutes and voila! You’ve got dinner. Often times the meal tastes just as good as if you’d cooked it over the stove and for a fraction of the time. Now I’m far from a food snob but I try to stay away from processed and microwave food as much as I can. I enjoy fresh food and I like the process of cooking. But then I understand some people truly are busy and some hate cooking so I suppose it is a perfect solution for some.

Following microwaves were cell phones (eliminating the need to take time out finding a pay phone) and the internet. The internet has revolutionized everything we do, from socializing to shopping to paying bills. Information on virtually anything you can think of is at your fingertips. And with the evolution from dial-up to broadband/cable websites load so fast that it has been said the average reader will move on to another site if it hasn’t loaded in roughly 5 seconds! I think that’s a crazy statistic but I know how true it is. There are too many other sites to waste time waiting for one to connect.

I’m pretty active on Twitter now, but if you told me about 6 months ago I’d have anything more than a fleeting interest in the site I’d have laughed in your face. I thought the idea of sharing random tidbits was stupid and even worse was the 140 character limit. What in the world can you say in 140 characters? (I thought).  But I drank the Twitter kool-aid. Sure it’s amusing to read the random thoughts of celebrities but I also subscribe to a few news sites. And it’s nice to get news without all of the expository info and editorializing that typically goes on in news articles. I think the character limit was an awesome idea because it eliminates a lot of BS. Information tends to be pretty cut, dry, and to the point.

Ironically, given that people my age are the ones who barely remember life before computers and want results and info quickly, we have been the slowest to grow up. It’s taking longer to settle into jobs/careers and to form relationships, get married, and have children. I think many of us are looking at lives like we do websites that are trying to load. We’re not willing to expend much time being patient waiting for results when we realize there are so many other opportunities out there (and if we don’t see them, we create them ourselves). It’s like the world is our internet and we’ll keep clicking till we find what we want.

Are you a patient person? Do you ever wish for a return to simpler and slower days?

J

Happy Tuesday!

Being naturally reserved and an introvert, one of my biggest challenges has been making friends. When I was a kid, activities where we had to partner up with someone were the bane of my existence. I’d always be one of the stragglers. You know, one of the kids left awkwardly standing around while everyone else is looking on with a mix of pity and smugness. Then the teacher makes you form a partnership, and the awkwardness is compounded by the fact that you’ve probably never spoken to each other before. I’ll digress before I really start reliving my elementary school days.

Anyhow, as I grew older I became a little more outgoing and found myself making more friends. In junior high my life revolved around my little group of friends. Passing notes in class, AOL Instant Messenger when we got home, and parties on the weekends. Silly us, we thought we’d stay the best of friends for the rest of our lives. Once in high school, we began growing apart when we met tons of new people and really started thinking about our futures.

Back then I thought of these people as my friends. And maybe they were. Sometimes, for no reason at all, there are those who just disappear from your life. Then there are relationships that last through high school, college, moving to different cities, marriage, babies, etc. Today I’m a lot more careful in using the term “friend”. We have to have a really strong relationship for me to consider a person a friend. That’s one of my gripes with Facebook, the way it refers to those on your list as “friends”. These may be folks you haven’t talked to in years or if you saw them in real life you’d be grasping at straws to have a conversation.

Social media, not just Facebook, lets you keep up with someone’s life without ever uttering a word to them. Instead of asking a person how they’re doing, just check on their profile or their Twitter feed. I’ve done it too so I’m not knocking it but it’s weird how we think of ourselves as a more connected society yet we probably have less interaction than ever before.

One of the things (among many ) that sucks about being an adult is that it’s so much harder to meet people and make friends. It’s work making time to socialize. Very different from school, where you’re surrounded by others your age and who you probably have something in common with.

How do you define friendship? Do you consider yourself to have many friends?

J

I have been using social media for years yet I’ve never fully embraced it. I joined Facebook in 2005, a few months before I went to college, and while I had fun with it for a while the novelty wore off rather quickly. To this day I activate my account in spurts, instead preferring to keep in contact via phone or email. Twitter is rather new for me, as I’ve only been part of the Twitter-verse for roughly three weeks. So far I’m liking it a lot more than I thought I would. There’s something about releasing random thoughts (ha ha) and ideas that’s kind of cathartic. Then of course, there’s blogging, which I find very fun, relaxing, and creative.

I’ve ran through these experiences to discuss a deeper topic: activism. With a major election at the end of this year, sticky issues (i.e. taxes, jobs, federally funded birth control) and policies are going to be in the spotlight from now until November. Last night on Twitter I noticed several people posing questions and rebuttals to the State of the Union address and its Republican response. Facebook also had some deep discussions going on, not just about the address but the Republican primaries as well. Some of these discussions devolved into arguments, but some remarks were really thought-provoking. And I’m noticing how some of these conversations are inspiring people to take that extra step by joining campaigns or actually protesting.

Over the past year though some of the biggest protests in the world have been organized via Facebook and Twitter. Look at Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street. Millions wrote of their dissent and disgust against the SOPA legislation just last week (January 18).

I used to think social media was a fad, kind of like chat rooms back in the 90s (remember those?). I don’t even know if chat rooms still exist but they were kind of a blueprint for the social networking sites today. Anyhow, I digress. I always used to believe that Facebook and Twitter were only to discuss banal topics such as what one had for breakfast that morning.  Sure there were times where huge national protests were organized and publicized but come on, that’s a one in a million thing (so I thought). But now that I’m becoming more steeped in social media I’m learning that talking to others and putting your voice out there really can make a difference. When I first started using Twitter, I had no idea what to say. I used to hold back voicing my opinion on issues because I didn’t think it would matter. And maybe it won’t, but it feels good to be part of something. To know that I may play a small part in shaping policy and laws that will affect us for years to come. Lately I’ve even been strongly considering taking that extra step and volunteering for the president’s campaign.

Have you ever used social media to protest or argue for a cause? Do you think Facebook and Twitter will come to play an even larger role in activism and politics?

J