Social Networking

I am in need of a rant, and this is one I feel like sharing, not writing in my rant diary. And yes, I do have a rant diary. It helps me to sort out my thoughts on whatever I rant about.

Having been here for a little over five months now, I have come to realize that social networking is a GIGANTIC part of youth culture in Denmark. Actually, not just youth, but culture in general. Part of it has to do with the fact that i-phones are slowly taking over the world, and therefore everybody has apps for stuff like twitter, instagram, facebook, and a million other things that give you access to a whole cyber world of endless entertainment with the click of a button. It is a  miracle in terms of human development and evolution, and for this exact reason it is also very controversial. There are two sides to the whole social networking thing, and I'm going to give you my take on both sides.

+ You can contact anyone anywhere, any time.

The exception to this is if your phone dies. Then people think you are ignoring them.

- You cannot avoid people without them knowing (the 'seen' setting on facebook....)
- You are constantly confronted with this whole digital world that makes you feel so in touch with everyone, but really you are sitting on your computer/phone alone looking at profiles that people have carefully constructed to portray themselves in a specific way. The moment it hits you you go from feeling alone to lonely, and that sucks.
- It can become an obsession or addiction.

+ You can connect and keep in touch with old friends and people who live far away.

- Sometimes knowing about what they're up to makes you feel even further away from them (this is a big thing for me at times)

+ You can share your life experiences with people in one big post rather than say the same thing over and over to several different people (eg my blog!)

- You don't actually know who reads it
- Some people consider really weird irrelevant stuff to be a life experience.

Hey guys. Today I made my bed!

...................................................

Cool

+ You can share photos with people in one go (eg. instagram or pinterest) rather than print it out and send it or catalogue it in a photo album
- Some people use instagram to take photos of really irrelevant things.....

# look # at # my # feet

..................................

Cool
- Once your photo is posted online it is no longer yours, anyone can download it, share it, do whatever they want with it.

Social networking and media has reached a point now where you can pretty much know what someone is doing, where they are and who they are with at any given moment. This has its upsides and downsides, but the rule (as for all things in life) is: everything in moderation.

P.S - This was not intended to offend anyone :)