subject: Facebook, email and cell phones - What if we didn't have 'em for one whole day? [print this page] Facebook, email and cell phones - What if we didn't have 'em for one whole day?
There is nobody more addicted to the Internet than me. I'm tellin' ya. But, while I peruse Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and check for cell messages which are usually in the form of texts on an endless basis, I wonder if it has all gone too far?
It's like we are almost TOO in touch, man. Everybody's cybernose is in my business and mine in theirs. Good God Almighty! Does anybody really care about your latest trials and tribulations? Or, are they just into posting theirs? Ah, who knows.
What I do know is that it's all about yet more gigantic corporations trying to make obscene amounts of money by giving us too much of a good thing. Yeah, it's just my take, but what's in it for me? You and I make 'em all rich beyond reason, yet there's no payback for us, other than further hi-tech addictions. Why don't any of these wunderkind billionaires share a measly pittance of their profits with we lowly commoners?
Yeah, I know, they give it to you for free, but it most definitely comes at a price: Your privacy. You're giving up all kinds of personal information whether you know it or not, and they really can't pretend that it's ultra-private anymore. There are so many hacks, flubs, outright fraud, arrogance and ignorance, you have to ask: Who knows who knows what about you, really? You might as well assume your are standing naked as a jaybird in the middle of your city's busiest intersection.
It all comes down to this for me: I love computing and being online. However, I'm more than a tad envious and discouraged that it hasn't yielded me any perks beyond being, say, one of the 500,000,000 lucky Facebook users. Why can't the corporations that you and I have made overnight viral bastions of wealth be willing to share some of it? You look at the mega-rich in this country, and to their credit, some really are very philanthropic, but what about the masses: What about you and me?
Well, I'm going for my microscopic piece a' the pie, and that's all there is to it. Here's a shout-out to that awesome movie of yesteryear that remains so timely whenever I think of it, NETWORK: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" Rather than use this anger/frustration to the negative, like in getting wasted or even worse, giving up, I am using it to fuel my proactive craving for a realistic portion of the Internet pot o' gold. I'm gettin' me some if it's the last thing I ever do. And, you are always free to join me, too.
While you hate to make so much of who you are and what drives you open to the public, does it really matter? Everybody already knows everything about us, whether we gave 'em permission or not. So, I just decided to be front-and-center about it all, while essentially announcing my intentions for all the world to see. Like they care.
So, what if we didn't have Facebook, email, cell phones and the like for one whole day? Don't say "Read a book," or "Clean your room," either.
