I normally shy away from writing things that may offend someone or provoke anger. But, there has been an idea on my mind lately I need to express. So, here goes:
I’m tired of hearing about “the good ole days.” I’m tired of hearing about how life was so much better when kids would ride their bikes to the ice cream shop with their friends and not come home until dinnertime. I’m tired of hearing people complain about how technology and social media have ruined our world. I’m tired of hearing people grumble about how lazy, entitled, and snobby my generation is. I’m tired of hearing people say, “If only we could go back to the way things used to be.”
When I paint the picture in my mind of that lifestyle, it is beautiful. It is happy, carefree, and down-to-earth…but it isn’t perfect. Each generation and each period in history was full of incredible advantages and tragic disadvantages. There were so many good things about the previous decades, but we need not forget all of the evil and dark things those times held as well. I would love to go back in history and visit those less technology-plagued times, but I can’t. This is where we are now, and this is what we have to work with.
There are a lot of saddening truths about social media and its impact on us, but there are also countless amazing attributes of being connected with one another 24/7. I get it. I agree. Instagram is warping our self-image, and Twitter is allowing us to hide behind a screen as we boldly bicker with our followers. Sometimes I dream of a world without social media.
But what good is it going to do for us to just sit around, complain about it and wish we could return to the good ole days? Technology has allowed us to connect with people around the globe in ways never before fathomed. Technology has allowed a woman in a Chewbacca mask to provoke us to cackle on a dreary day by just looking at our phones. Technology has allowed passionate and thoughtful young people on this website to share our words with more people than our moms.
Imagine if everyone stopped wishing they could turn back time, but rather began revolutionizing the time we are in now. We need to remember to put down the phone on occasion and have face-to-face conversations. We need to remember not to fearlessly rant on social media about politics when all it does is cause anger rather than action. We need to remember that posts on social media are the perfected and filtered best moments of people’s lives and let that knowledge combat our jealousy. What if we started inspiring, uplifting, encouraging, and helping one another on social media?
I’m just suggesting that rather than dreaming of the way things used to be and getting stuck in a rut, we instead understand the beauty of the opportunities we have in 2016 and use them for good rather than evil.
P.S. Someone please remind me of this when I am 65 and longing to go back to the good ole days!
