Don't get me wrong, I am a lazy woman at heart so I really enjoy all these modern conveniences. But I must admit that I am often overwhelmed by how much content is out there, and sometimes missing the old school social sites like McDonald's or the local supermarket.
The trigger for this melancholy moroseness? Facebook. I recently created a Facebook page against my will because my aunt went to Ireland and I wanted to see her pics. Her answer? Find me on Facebook. Which I still haven't done! I did the bare minimum to get a page so I could search for friends and family, searched for them, couldn't find most of them, and only check it about once a week. Needless to say, I was astonished at how much time these grown, working adults with families spend on this social site. Farming, empire building, and why do I keep getting requests for their lost farm animals??? Who has time to sit on their computer and do all the things I see on here?
I'm not a domestic goddess or anything, and I still don't have time to play on my computer. In fact, I have to put off some household chore like laundry or something to get the thirty minutes every few days I do.
What happened to running into a friend at the grocery store on Saturday and chatting it up in the produce section? Or having a couple over for a fun Friday night dinner and board games while the kiddos run around upstairs possibly destroying themselves and your property? I can tell you why these things don't happen anymore - they are all at home playing Farmville!
I used to promise myself when I was a teenager that I would be one of those cooler adults who knew about the latest bands, fads, and new technology. And then I got to be an adult. Well, I'm a big liar! I can't stand most of the new bands that are out, but I do recognize their songs because they've all been done before! And the fads?? Since I was a child of the eighties I most definitely get the fads, and no, they don't look good on women my age (see my earlier post). Technology??? Most definitely not! Oh I love the new cell phones and can tell you all about them. TVs and some computer stuff, but websites? Social sites? Twittering and all that?? Are you serious?? Okay, that's a lot of question marks.
Does anyone remember why we stopped sending telegrams? Because they invented the telephone. And now with texting and Twittering, we've gone right back to telegrams. Instant ones to be sure, but still, it lacks that depth of connection you get when you hear another person's voice on the other end. This may explain why kids today have no social graces. Because you don't have to play nice online, you can just go find another guild, Facebook friend, etc. And don't get me started on those people who have like 600 friends. Baloney!!
We are dumbing down as a society because the only way we ever progressed in the first place was by meeting new people, learning about new cultures, and trying to be better for each other. With a faceless, heartless computer screen conducting my relationships, what consequences do I face when I am rude, hateful, or selfish?
Be careful of your friend technology! Remember, the aliens always start out friendly in the movies just before they suck out your brain!!
