RE: Smoke and Mirrors | How Social Media has twisted the truth
Hey Mav,
I too find it unbelievable what people post online! When did our society become so self-important and self-indulgent to believe that someone's morning coffee would be of interest to the entire world? Or doing laundry? or taking yet another duck-billed selfie? I find it all very strange.
I taught high school for years, (I think you knew that?), and I watched the onslaught of this nonsense creep up, little by little over the years. My last 10 years of teaching were done at a Fine Arts School, that included grades 1-12. I remember the first time I saw a little girl, in grade 3, taking a selfie with her cell phone. I still shake my head when I think about it, but with cells came easy access to Facebook, Instagram...all of it. Unfortunately, not many took the time to explain to kids that what they were posting was not private, and more importantly, was there forever. I remember having a conversation with my grade 12's once about something embarrassing someone had done at a party over the weekend. I said when I was young, the same kinds of things happened, but thankfully if was not recorded for all posterity, and most of us forgot about it by Wednesday. Unfortunately, these kids record and post everything, so no one is ever able to forget it. They don't really 'get' the significance of that.
My own son when he was 13 or so posted something on FB that was inappropriate and I marched him to the front door and asked if he would yell the same thing into a megaphone outside for the neighbourhood to hear? He was mortified and thought I'd gone crazy until I said that his written words would travel around the world in seconds! It was a wonderful light-bulb moment ;)
Privacy used to be a valued commodity, with generations literally fighting so we could have it and keep it. Today, for whatever reasons, people don't take it seriously and thanks to some good old fashion fear mongering, are lead to believe that cameras on every corner, and scanning our google accounts for terrorist threats, is all done in the name of protecting us.
And the sheep believe it!
(wow, I really got carried away with this comment! Your post obviously triggered something in me :)
Unfortunately, privacy is no longer something of value as we had that onslaught of big brother shows that invaded the idiot box for a couple of years and then all the reality shows and the proliferation of vblogs, Instagram and Facebook Live just made it easier for stalkers to follow their prey.
Makes me shake my head.
That story about your son is awesome and would indeed put into context what it means when we send out a mean tweet, post or video making fun of someone.
I was blessed that social media was not there when I was a young kid but unlucky enough to have some of my antics recorded and immortalized in the internet.