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The Social Web

I have usually accepted new technology with open arms, however, as I get older I realize its damaging effects.  I titled this blog with the intention to take a look at technology and how it's affecting our lives, yet I haven't had the courage to cut the cord with several social media websites--these are the sites that I am most concerned about.  I am tired of living in bad faith and decided that now is the time to just quit them all.

I guess it was the fear of missing out that has kept me from deleting my accounts.  There seems to be this pervasiveness to our thoughts of how it is social media that connects us to the outside world.  I realized that the people I care about are right there around me.  I don't need Facebook to connect me to people I barely knew in college anymore, I don't need Instagram to look at the wanderings of people I hardly know, if at all.  The people I care about and the people who care about me are a phone call away, they have my address, they know where to find me and what I am actually interested in.  

Facebook, Instagram, etc... they are a composite of yourself that you want the world to see.  They are marketing tools designed by a company that wants to learn all your desires so that they can better market to you all in the name of you sharing with your friends.  I don't want companies to own my opinions any longer, much less sell them to advertisers so that they can target me.

This world has gone too far to consumerism and it is time that we stop this onslaught of mass-market appeal that is devouring us.  We need to reclaim our silence that, not so long ago, could be found.  We seem to be filling our lives ever more with noise and pointless noise at that.  I want to reclaim that silence I once knew when I was younger, without a cell phone, without a television in my room, without a computer glowing in the corner; I want to reclaim that silence of being under the covers with a flashlight and a good book, where you could be alone with your thoughts, and there was nothing asking for your constant opinion or approval.

Here's to reclaiming ourselves, not the selves we pretend to be, to finding out who we are again and enjoying life outside the flood of noise. 

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