I've noticed a lot of 'kitchy' posts - clever little sayings about one thing or another - popping up from all sorts of sites - all over Facebook more and more.
It's funny - it's supposed to be a means of socializing - a positive thing. Have you ever noticed you can 'like' anything - with your clever little thumbs up - but there's no way to 'dislike' anything (where's the thumbs down?) People are reconnecting like never before with this amazing program, and the re-connections are wonderful. So we smile - click our likes, our pokes, share silly sayings and clever anecdotes - but there's a lot of digs, and jabs, and slams in there as well! It's sorta cool that people feel their freedom of speech and 'tell it like it is' (or as they see it) - but sometimes I think people forget that what they write is out there for the world to see!!
Jobs get lost, feelings get hurt, friendships come to an end, and things often don't look like they fit that thumbs up everybody is dishing out!
I saw a post the other day by a 'friend of a friend' (why it's on my page - I still don't know). But she mentioned that her pet of many years had passed quietly in the night and that the children in the household were heartbroken. Her feed had about 4 comments and 20 thumbs ups!! Shouldn't that have been the other way around? And a thumbs down or no thumb at all?
Then there's the grammar, the abbreviations, the shortcuts, and the spelling. OOOH MY GOD don't even get me started with the horrible grammar, incorrigible spelling, and ridiculous abbreviations! In our land of spell-check (which half the time isn't even used) - our kids aren't learning how to spell. They don't know when to use Their, There, or They're ..... Do, Due, or Dew..... orwhere an apostrophe goes! (Yes, let's forget punctuation - "It's like so not important!!"
Before I went into Nursing - I was going to be an English instructor. I so pity the English instructors of today. How do they sleep at night? I give them 2 thumbs up for working so hard while social media is undoing all their hard work in the after hours.
The electronic - technologic - information age is creating a generation of social cripples, grammatical slouches, and handicapped spellers! People do not know how to use courtesy anymore on the phone or in person. They'd rather text than converse. And our world is becoming an angrier and angrier place! Why? There's no humanity left in conversation! The written word comes across a lot less personally - it has no gestures, no voice tones, lilts, or inflections, no smiles, no laughter. And often it is misinterpreted as something else by the reader - than was intended by the writer for those very reasons!
Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and the myraid of other accesses to social networking may have opened many otherwise closed doors and re-connected people in a wonderfully magical way - but it is breaking down the human side of social contact.
I count myself as a victim of some of this. I still send real cards, and still use the phone unless it is for a 'future' reference and don't want to disturb someone with a phone call - I text when I have to - but really prefer to call. However, a letter in the mail? I think the messages in my xmas cards are about as close as I've come to that - for a few years now. Our society is evolving. And it is becoming more and more antisocial. I see it all around me - every single day, and as happy as I am to be back in touch with long lost friends and family - the direction of our society makes me worry about my grandchildrens' futures!
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