Social Media

 

Guest Blogger: Oscar Casas

Eight years ago, the thought of social media was very obscure. Front runners for connecting people in my opinion were MySpace, AOL Instant Messenger, and Hotmail. Connecting with colleagues my first two years of college comprised of actually getting a phone number and maybe and instant messenger name. As we all know, the advent of FaceBook has changed how we communicate with one another and has made us more open to intrusiveness into our own lives. We now live in a society that has had technology and communication so engrained in their train of thought, which I suspect most sites have now reached their saturation point.

There are now ad agencies trying to capitalize on the fact that people have cell phones and those cell phones have GPS and data plans. Google Coupons and Living Social are two companies that strive to reach the consumer to the last penny. This overabundance of information has turned me off to participating with these programs. A random sale during down periods trying to entice me to spend my money is very disheartening. I often think of friends who recommend these sites saying "But I got a really good deal" then say to myself "did they really need 50% off China Bistro on a Monday night?"

While social media serves a purpose for connecting individuals, providing up to the minute weather and national security information, I feel we may be in over our heads. Technology is too fast and too abundant in our lives. Should something happen that would wipe out a network, what would we as a nation do? What alternatives could we readily divert to? Maybe the jobs that disappeared because of computers will re appear?

My recent visit to Costa Rica has provided me a viewpoint of life without social media. In Costa Rica, few people have IPHONE’s; few have smart phones, and most have very old Nokia 1100’s . People here meet with each other to talk. They walk from place to place and value time with friends and family as opposed to always being rushed or updating their status. The terminology for life in Costa Rica is "Muy Tranquillo"—meaning "Very Relaxed". Such terminology does not fit in with our current social lives. In lieu of sports, outdoor activities, dinner parties, gatherings, we choose to update our status and watch our UVERSE or FIOS while texting…

Social media, I will limit thee in my life.