Prologue

I can go on Facebook and see what an old high school acquaintance had for breakfast this morning. I can check Twitter to read a stranger’s thoughts on Charlie Sheen in broken English. I can browse through a coworker’s blog to read her regurgitated thoughts on Libya. I can find out where my old boss is now working via LinkedIn. I can see a friend’s band play crappy punk covers on Youtube. I can log into Myspace to… wait, does anyone even use Myspace anymore? Never mind.

It goes without saying that the internet has changed our lives. Some may even argue that it has been for the better, and more often than not those people would be right. Things like the ability to keep in touch with distant relatives, having the luxury of looking up driving directions, and being able to distract yourself from working by browsing through ESPN.com are undeniable benefits we receive from the World Wide Web (well, they would if people still called it that). Other “benefits” from the internet such as receiving questionable facts from Wikipedia, seeing the box scores from every Major League Baseball game ever played, and the existence of Julian Assange... well, they fall into more of a gray area.

I would argue that Social Networking also falls into that same gray area. Has it really improved our lives? In the past couple years or so, this phenomenon has gone from cute little distraction to a cultural mainstay. It has become part of our everyday life. Some people watch Youtube more than TV, get their news through Facebook, or have more social interaction via Twitter than through traditional conversation.

I’m not going to lie… I am guilty of much of this. I check Facebook a good 5+ times a day. I’ve tried networking through LinkedIn. Yoube has changed my life. Never really got into Twitter though (what’s the point?). Regardless, I suppose I could be considered a Social Media Addict. I have allowed it into my life and accepted it as part of my daily routine. I’m sure I could live without these sites, but I’d really rather not (well, except Twitter. Twitter is lame). And as a Social Networker, I can’t help but laugh at what these sites have done to us...

Social Networking has made people boring.

We have entered an age where nothing is held back, yet everything is condensed. We have gotten to the point where we feel obligated to post every thought we have and every little thing that happens to us. Most of the time, those thoughts and experiences are not interesting.

Because these thoughts and stories are not interesting, we borrow from creative people. Maybe they’re poets, musicians, or comedians. These regurgitated ideas may occasionally be interesting, but they’re not original.

So it dawns on us… we’re neither interesting nor original. But dammit, all of our friends are posting things, so we feel obligated and pressured to share our own thoughts. To hide the fact that we’re neither interesting nor original, we condense our thoughts. What we’ve ended up with is an entire generation of people who prefer expressing their opinion vaguely with 140 characters over an in-depth conversation, who view clicking “Like” as social interaction, and who post videos of obscure Counting Crows songs just because they perfectly describe their current mood.

We all have opinions. We all have stories. But sadly, many (if not most) of those opinions and stories are not interesting. Sadly, I’m no exception. Maybe I should just keep them to myself?

Nah.

I think I’ll try blogging instead.