Social media etiquette

Social media users are a bit of a delicate lot. On the one hand they love it because it allows them to stay in touch and share of themselves, their thoughts, their hopes, their dreams, their annoyances. On the other, they demand a hands-off approach.

If you comment it has to be a maximum of four words, and that's a stretch and should stay within the lines of:

:)
:(
LOL
OMG, LMAOF
I can't stop laughing
So true

... and so on. It really isn't a medium for any sort of true interaction even if you know the people, and used to consider them friends. Plus, you can't see their reaction and they can't see the spirit in which you wrote whatever it was that you posted.

The result is this detached society that is oppressed by self-imposed isolation. All these screens behind which we hide are creating a void and you are not allowed to cross it because it is not socially acceptable. Period.

And it's addictive. Such a time waster but once you get sucked in you can't loosen its grip. It's like a lover with an axe to grind. There is the real interaction: between user and machine, even if the machine is the length of a pointer finger and pointer finger.

I have to ask, is it too late? Are we permanently disjointed? Or am I only now waking up to the fine art of social interaction and it has always been this way? After all, nobody really cared how your day was even before the handheld and now nobody asks because presumably, they are always in touch.

Madonna rocks

I never used to realize how tiny Madonna is. But I always admired her. She isn't particularly talented at music, or dancing, or acting but she knows how to put on a show and she is a brilliant business woman.

She's tiny but packs a mean punch and if I could even master a portion of her talent, as lacking as it is, I'd still be better off.

A deep, deep, hole

This is the month of love, not because of Valentine's day. For other reasons. I still think he's great but he has his doubts.

I don't blame him. It's been a tough go. There's this hole I got myself into and sometimes I want out also. At least I want help.

I'm tired and guilty and frustrated and tired.

I look around and it isn't where it should be and everything is in the wrong place, piled high about itself. There doesn't seem to be an end or a way to dig my way out. Only a final end to fear and not care about.

I can understand the wanting. Hoping there is something "on the other side". The other side of what? Of existence? Of course it is ridiculous to assume there is anything other than this. But there is a hope that drives so many people and it is infectious and maybe even a bit necessary.

After all, there would be a whole lot of people that would become paralyzed with lack of motivation to function if they really knew that the only thing waiting for them after death is nothingness. A complete and utter lack of being, including themselves.

That fear and longing and ego all goes 'poof' like a smoke. Poof.

Is there maybe a vapour? Like when you put out a candle and then there is that trail of smoke and that smell that lasts a little while until it is adequately diffused into the surrounding atmosphere? Probably. But that's all it is. A remnant of something that was. It can't hurt or want or do or create. It is dissipating and perfectly devoted to the act of becoming unthere.

You have to go on and argue and fight and be because we as a group have come up with distractions as we wait for nothing to arrive. We have to want to care because life will exist until it stops and we aren't the ones to decide if it does. But when it does, it will just ... not be ...