Apparently that whole procrastination thing is even making its way into my blogging life. And not in the I’m-purposely-not-writing-about-this-because-I-can’t-or-won’t-deal-with-it-right-now kind of way but more in the I-guess-I-never-got-to-it kind of way. Which is probably a good thing. The week’s been busier … Continue reading
Apparently a new acronym has taken the social networking generation by storm–well, on Twitter and Tumblr, anyway. But, as we all know, it should make its way to Facebook eventually. Coined the day before Thanksgiving and soon after trending on … Continue reading
In the name of going out for one night this weekend; of forgetting No Fun November for just a moment; and, above all, of doing everything that is fun, crazy, and spontaneous–which seems to transform into a distant memory or … Continue reading
To a worm in a horseradish, the whole world is a horseradish. ~ Yiddish Proverb You never realize how important perspective is until you have to give it to someone else. Intellectually, I understand the importance of staying grounded and … Continue reading
(via)
It’s about time I addressed something I’ve never really understood. Some people call it quirky; others call it refreshing–I just call it pretentious. Especially when the act I am about to describe is committed by someone under 30.
To all the people who refuse to own smartphones but belong to the generation that has reaped and revolutionized (bastardized?) their benefits: What are you thinking?
Allow me to provide a brief history of how I got to this contemplation point. While scrolling through the Thought Catalog today (via GoogleReader), I came across a post titled “Why I Don’t Own a Smart Phone.” The author explains he chooses not to own a smartphone–which is one word, as those of us who own one know (although really, you couldn’t have fact-checked that one?)–because he chooses to have an active real life rather than an active online life. He pities the smartphone owners of his generation, who have lost virtually all emotional intelligence and real-world social skills because of how much time they spend cultivating their Internet personas, keeping track of what their “friends” “like,” and “liking” things back on a daily basis. Allegedly, they have lost all freedom–instead of living life, they spend their time waiting desperately in line at an Apple store for the latest iPhone release. They allow their phones to control them instead of controlling their phones. Poor, misguided souls. WHEN WILL YOU STOP LETTING LIFE PASS YOU BY?!?!
Newsflash: smartphones may be a social crutch for some people, but for, I dare say, most of us, they are a supplement to real-word living. I’ll admit, disconnecting for a predetermined period of time (a day, a week, maybe even a month) sounds liberating–and based on the times that it’s happened to me unexpectedly, either because I forgot my phone at home or didn’t realize it had been on silent for several hours, I’ll say that it can be. And yes, maybe when my smartphone spontaneously died on me over the summer, I freaked out like nobody’s business. But that’s mostly because I couldn’t receive or send texts or even make phone calls. The email, Facebook, and Twitter capabilities were not the first thing that came to mind when my smartphone suddenly went to the big cell phone graveyard in the sky.
I kind of went on a tangent there, but here’s the point: smartphones have given us the ability, the choice, to connect to each other in multiple ways 24/7. Just because I own one doesn’t mean that I am socially inept in the real world. My online life is but a reflection of my real-world relationships. Yes, I have several hundred Facebook friends, and yes, I do have the Facebook application on my phone, which allows me to check up on any one of them at any given moment. But do I sit at my computer constantly hitting “refresh” on a Friday night because I have nothing better to do? No. Do I stand there as I’m having a conversation with a real person and continuously hit “refresh” on my Facebook mobile app? No. Do I actually have the phone numbers of those Facebook friends of mine who are close friends in real life? Yes. Do I use more personal ways of getting in touch with them when I just want to talk or hang out? Yes. I therefore don’t see the problem here.
(via)
I’m sure the way I use my smartphone is the same way many twentysomethings use their smartphones: we’re constantly connected, yes, but our social lives happen largely offline, as they should. The smartphone and all its social media apps are merely tools we use to keep in touch with each other, to document our experiences, to plan real-world events that get us out of our apartments, and to put all the points of contact in one neat little package. Let’s face it, it’s convenient to have your email, social media, and traditional texts and phone calls accessible through one device. That you can then take with you wherever you go. Ah, modern life.
(via)
So to my fellow twentysomethings who refuse to have a smartphone, I must say several things to you. On one level, I respect and admire you for sticking to your principles, conducting a realistic assessment of your needs, and acting accordingly. On another level, however, I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t some high horse you’re sitting on under all that I-just-wanna-live-real-life stuff you keep trying to sell to the rest of us. Is your not owning a smartphone supposed to be a marker of your individuality? Is it your way of shunning perhaps the only part of 21st-century life you may be able to shun without reducing your ability to function? Is it a way to cut the clutter out of your life? Is it a way to test your relationships, i.e. the people who really care will take the extra step to call or text? Or is it all just a strange ego boost?
Granted, the author of the aforementioned post blogs for a living, so maybe he has some justification for not wanting to be constantly connected. I felt the same way sometimes when I worked as a journalist. But let’s be real now: if you have a Facebook, a Twitter, a Tumblr or some other form of social media in your life, you ARE connected. And just because you don’t check it on your phone doesn’t mean that you don’t care as much about it as some of the people who do. So maybe you shouldn’t give yourself so much credit.
Choosing not to have a smartphone is fine–those of us who have one will look at you a little weird and wonder whether you belong in our parents’ generation, but we’ll respect your choice. As long as you don’t make us feel bad for ours. Shun the hell out of the smartphone and all it represents for all I care–just don’t act like you’re completely above the whole online, social media, over-sharing thing. Because chances are you’re not. Some social commentators have dubbed us the Facebook Generation, after all. They didn’t just pull that out of nowhere. So get off your high horse and come back to Earth–it IS possible to both “like” a friend’s status on Facebook and text that same friend at least once a day. One does not cancel out the other; they are not mutually exclusive. Balance, people. Balance.
The latest cataclysmic event to affect the Millennial Generation: Facebook has decided to change its look, features, etc. AGAIN. And if the 484809485738019832 status updates about this state of events are any indication, apparently even we have a threshold for over-sharing. Who knew?
I See You: Note the realtime mini-feed in the right corner, the complete elimination of the default status update box (to allow for more posts, I presume), and the lists on the left generated by a Facebook algorithm. Stalking for dummies.
The fact that so many people felt the need to update their 547 closest friends on their feelings about the new(est) Facebook speaks to the place this social media behemoth has carved for itself in our lives. Facebook is a reflection of our real world existence, or at the very least, a portion of that existence. It’s the vehicle we use to keep in touch with friends near and far, to catch up with family members we haven’t seen in a while, to publicize the causes we care about and the events we’re planning, to document our memories, to grow our professional network, to keep tabs on people we won’t readily admit we want to keep tabs on, and (above all) to procrastinate. Every time it changes, there’s massive resistance–it’s like going to your favorite coffee shop and finding out they don’t make your usual anymore. But eventually, we get used to it and come to accept it as the “normal” version of Facebook.
(via)
But now, it seems Mark Zuckerberg & Co. have taken things a little too far. Not in any ethical sense…well, I suppose after The Social Network that’s up for debate, but that’s not what I’m referring to here. What I mean is that Facebook may have gone too far in assuming how much we really want to know about our friends and how much we really want them to know about us. (And “friends” in that sentence means “Facebook friends,” which, as any card-carrying member of the Millennial Generation knows, includes everyone from your core group to that guy you sat next to in poli-sci class two years ago but never talk to anymore.)
The new(est) Facebook has revamped (or ruined, depending on your viewpoint) the news feed, making it more stalker-friendly. The pictures are larger, posts you may find interesting are flagged, and there’s a realtime mini-feed that follows you down as you scroll. It’s beginning to look a lot like Twitter, only with longer posts and somewhat creepier mechanisms. Take, for instance, the new lists: Facebook has decided that it’s going to sort people in my life based on certain characteristics and compile this information into categorical lists. This is all good and well–and frankly, we were able to do that before if we chose, either in a list or just in a friend search–but the whole let-me-get-that-for-you kind of approach is a little weird. At least Google has the decency to ask.
But really, it’s amazing that Facebook has finally reached a point that’s gotten so many of my friends riled up, and they have a point. Do we really need to know at any given moment what our friends and our friends’ friends (and our friends’ friends’ friends’) are doing? Is that realtime mini-feed really that necessary? It’s just encouraging people to creep. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the news feed is also continually updating, so the longer you scroll, the more stuff you’ll see. It’s a never-ending cycle of stalking.
(via)
I think a personal anecdote is relevant here. I was at brunch with Lauren and Sara over the weekend, and as we were catching up on each other’s lives, Sara made a comment suggesting that she wasn’t with her boyfriend anymore. This was the first time I was hearing about the news, so I had a WTF moment right there, at the table, and managed to coherently say (despite my constant exclamations of, “Wait, WHAT?!?!”), “When did this happen?” She updated me and we all got on the same page, but in the midst of that conversation, I said something like, “Omg, I need to stalk you on Facebook more,” to which Lauren chuckled and said, “Or, you could just TALK to your friends.” Wow. So this is where we are.
Facebook has done a lot of things to the way we communicate–but ultimately, we need to remember that a friendship can’t be cultivated only through Facebook. We need real interaction, too, like phone calls and catch-up lunches/dinners/drink nights. And frankly, the new(est) Facebook is only further encouraging stalking over talking. Not just creepy, but also deceiving.
(via)
The Facebook generation is calling TMI, and for good reason. Seriously, if I wanted to know what you were doing, thinking, laughing at, promoting, attending, not attending, sharing, tagging, commenting on, posting, or capturing on film at any given moment, I’d just ask you. If we’re real friends, and not just Facebook friends, I’m sure I’ll learn about it without the help of technological realtime. Trust.
So please, Facebook, leave us some privacy options and stop making it so easy for people to creep. Because social networking shouldn’t be surveillance…well, in America, anyway.
Technically, this post should probably be called “The Second Morning After.” But aside from wanting to finally pay homage to the cleverly titled design template for this blog, this is the first morning back in reality after my weekend of craziness, so I think the title’s appropriate. So without further ado–and because a story somehow takes on added mystery and artistry with a poem (or, a pseudo-poem)–I give you…
Behind yet ahead of schedule. Start of the heat (weather). Healthiest meal all weekend. Twinsie. Traffic: did everyone have the same idea? Finally made it. More long lines. Brief stop at the hotel room. Back in the car, kickin’ (squishin’) in the back seat. Discount liquor off The Strip. Cranky old guy with a six-pack of Stella. McDonald’s: prepping for the night ahead. Bags of ice. Makeshift cooler.
Anthems: Super Bass, Pretty Girl Rock, Party Rock Anthem. Midori sours, Bacardi shots. Clubbing over Rihanna. Killer shoes. Early to Surrender. Pretty pictures, pole pictures. Off to Blush. Poppin’ champagne–for free. How many glasses? Middle-aged women dancing. Gary Busey. Back to Surrender. Start of the heat (me and my girls): Vanessa, Alyssa, Marissa, Jade, Lala, Keisha. Bruno Mars wannabe. More free drinks. Missed meeting another admirer. Territorial bitch. Finding Jade. Drunk texts–plans for next weekend? Feeding the drunchies like zombies.
9:30 wake-up: WTF? Shower race. Stella Rosa in the morning. A Serendipitous lunch–orgasm sandwich. Classic Fat Tuesday. Half to Tao Beach, half to nap. Biggest potato known to man. Time to prep for round two.
Anthems: Don’t Wanna Go Home, throwback to Shots. Better shoes. Formal dresses. Bacardi mojitos, more shots for some. Race to the taxis. VIP at Marquee. Timothy De La Ghetto. Open bar: vodka cranberry, AMF, Midori sour. More for some. Hip-hop floor. Vodka goggles confirmed. Break from dancing. Seven in one hour = too many for Jade. Bouncer notices = Jade gets escorted out. Damn.
9:30 wake-up: how? Steamed chicken nuggets, dipping station. Bathroom love note. Bye-bye to Alyssa. Shower race, part deux. “We have so many needs right now.” Grande Luxe lunch. Outlet shopping–for new shoes. Tattoo for one, nap for the rest. Ride from Marissa. Supplies at CVS. Join the rest for naps. Lord of the Rings commentary. Mirage buffet: alleviating guilt, prepping for round 3.
Anthem: Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.). Knowing chuckles all around. Jäger bombs. Heels are a must. Latest departure time so far. Guest list at XS. More free drinks: Long Island iced teas. Steve Aoki, Flo Rida, Afrojack. Starting to miss the hip-hop. Discovered why we don’t club on Monday nights. Drunchie time at South Point, loving the $3.95 steak and eggs. Home at 4:30. Crash.
9:30 wake-up–from the hotel front desk. Slow, painful crawl out of bed. Makeup from last night still there. Pack clothes, shoes, souvenirs, bar under the TV. Sketchy black bags. Bye-bye, hotel room. Tetris in the car. Starbucks stop. Sickness setting in. Hello again, sleep. Pit stop: more chicken nuggets. Hello, SoCal. Talks of the next trip, drop-offs. The waiting game. More traffic. Finally back in L.A. Nyquil + sleep = heaven.
7:00 wake-up. Snooze for 15 minutes. Out of bed at 7:30. Hocked up on meds and tea. Why do I do this to myself? *Thinks back to the weekend* No regrets.
If nothing else on this blog clearly communicates that I’m a member of the Facebook generation, the title of this category should. And I mean the original Facebook generation, who used Xanga and MySpace when social networking as we know it today was but a twinkle in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye–the generation Facebook was originally conceived for, i.e. those of us who were either starting or already in college when the site became popular. (That’s right, high school posers. I have wanted nothing more for four years than for you to stick to MySpace until you join the collegiate realm–at least then you’ll have legitimate reasons for wanting to maintain your social network. But if you must join us on Facebook, please refrain from taking those angled, dimly lit, too close-up or clearly at arm’s length MySpace pictures and using them on your profile…and even after you start college, please refrain from doing that, period. All right, enough on this subject.)
As I racked my brain for a clever title for the category that was supposed to encompass all the crazy travels and adventures I go on with my even crazier friends, nothing could have been more appropriate than “Check Us In.” Facebook Places, which to be honest seemed way creepy at first, has become a fun method for tracking where you’ve been, sharing that information with your friends, and figuring out where you’d like to go in the future. You check in on your smartphone, using the Facebook mobile app, so everyone knows you were there. Our parents’ generation may call this practice the ultimate in over-sharing–and they’ll cite stories of twenty-somethings whose apartments were robbed because they checked into a restaurant or an exotic location, indicating to the thieves they weren’t home–but to us, it’s the natural way of things. Sharing virtually every aspect of our lives is just another facet of interacting with our friends in a socially acceptable manner…it would be more strange if we didn’t share.
So on that note…the world is waiting–gotta go! Keep up with my adventures here 🙂
Suit Yourself 