Social Media Blue Eyes Gone Red

“Anger is that powerful internal force that blows out the light of reason.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I came home from work today and realized I have been harboring a lot of anger inside. It wasn’t like I was calmly waiting for my evening coffee to be brewed that a light of insightfulness appeared. It was after I blew up at other’s around me. I was screaming at them to listen to what I was saying. Unfortunately, they where the ones who where listening.

Is Social Media a Scream Tunnel?

I have to believe, the beginnings of social media / blogging was a means for us to “let out our voices.” Rapidly, the space evolved to everyone speaking, more and more. Comments on blogs are rarely read or noticed. So what is the purpose? A false sense of our opinion being heard? Yet social media gurus still claim the purpose of social media is to share ideas. Sharing involves listening and speaking. Not just speaking.

There are numerous blogs who don’t even allow comments. Seth Godin wants you to voice your opinion on your own blog. What it yields is a group of independent thinkers talking and talking, but no interaction or listening. As a community, how are we to learn and thrive off each other if we fail to listen?

The deep dark truths of social media is you have to own the bigger megaphone and scream more often then your neighbor. Link building, networking, and all the false sense of “community” building with social media is only successful if you build your OWN community. A community that only listens to each other. Resembles more a cult than a community.

Social Media’s Impact on Society

I was taught by my father to have an independent voice. Often I find myself butting up against stereotypes, both being a blonde and female. The problem is, I can independantly think all I want, but it seems as no one cares to listen.

Starting on Monday, my day goes like this:
Clients refuse to listen to your advice, ignore the limitations of a contract, and just throw expectations at you to move mountains. Friends and lovers who provide unwanted advice with out regard to what YOU want. I can’t take anymore people telling me what my business “is”, what is “should be”, what I should “do”, what I should “want”, what I should “read”, what I should “think”, what social media should “be”, how to use social media the “right” way, the “wrong” way this, that, OMG JUST SHUT UP!

I am 100% for independent thinking but more so for the use of communication. Communication allows us to share information and ideas. It’s a two-way street, not a one way. The growth of social media, and “start your own blog”, is making us all speak independently of one another. What are the outcomes on society outside of social media?

If we are so used to being able to speak for 500 words without interruption on a blog, why would we interrupt our work process to communicate to another worker? We are so ingrained in just doing it our way, to stop and think about the effects on another would be abnormal. Where else are we doing this?

Are we slowly becoming deaf to one another? Is the constant push of your brand, your business, your blog, slowly making us into selfish thinkers? What about the guy in the cubicle next to you? What will be the impact of blogging on our children? Will they learn to read, comment, and listen to each other? Or will they just learn they can do and say whatever they want with no regard to anyone else because, well, that’s what everyone else does.

I found a recent blog post interesting on how social media is changing our expectations of work, accomplishments, and to-do lists. Below is a statement from the author:

“The problem is that language and grammar are both the form and the content of so much 21st century industry. We struggle to recognise the distinction between the means and the ends, the production method and the product. So we just keep on talking.”

If we keep on talking and never stop to listen, will our work days ever end? Will we hear our spouses? Will we hear our employer? Will we hear our children, and will they hear us?

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