The Social Media Filter pt. 2: My Stance

**House Keeping**
  My goal for creating the debate topic posts has been to present you all with a situation or observation and (hopefully) spark some conversation about it.  I try to state my opinion of it simply, and leave it up to the readers to discuss without me directing it too much.  In this case, I've been asked to elaborate on my opinion (*Waves to Hazel & Domo*), so this is that.

  I feel like we are losing sight of the power of social media.  I create a profile, upload a profile pic, enter some basic info, Google indexes it, then anybody that searches something similar can get access to that information.  That visibility is too often over-looked by this generation.  I know a lot of things that I shouldn't about people I don't know, barely know, or have never met.  People get tunnel vision when using social media, thinking that it's just them & their online friends in the circle of trust...when really, some 60 year old guy in his tighty-whities is reading your tweets about how you are about to finger-bang your night away (FTR, I wear boxers).



  I try to separate my real & internet lives.  I like having people all over the country with common interests that I can talk to every now and then...but they aren't high enough on my social ladder to know that I have a fantasy of having a two-and a half-some with a little person (*Serious face*).  Even if I did want to express that to my friends on a social network site, countless other people on my friends list or otherwise have the ability to see it...and I don't want that to happen. 

  Honestly, I have been and will continue to be offended when I find things out about my real life friends on the internet.  I feel like it's a slap in the face for me to find out you got engaged, are having a baby, got kicked out of school, etc. from a FaceBook status.  In my eyes, this information should be shared directly to your close friends.  Only a select group of people knew that I had surgery a few months ago (if you didn't know...step your game up so you get inside information before the rest of the plebeians do).  I don't like the idea of all of my life being known to everyone...certain things are just none of your damn business.

  When it comes to relationships, current and former, I continue to govern my actions based on the previously mentioned principles of privacy.  I don't bring my troubles to the internet (...all the time, anyway).  One reason for this is that I don't think most people care.  Sure, people love to get in other people's business...but you probably don't care if I think one of my ex's is too stupid to avoid being the human equivalent of a jizz rag (am I joking? If you were higher on my friend ladder, you would know).  If I wouldn't want to see somebody talk about it online, I won't talk about it online.  So, with that being said, I don't have a problem with any significant others subscribing to me, because I'm not going to say anything that I feel they shouldn't see.

  This topic and some of the points made by @Bereolaesque about how text messaging is crippling effective communication have made me reconsider why I prefer to be more direct (Or try to be, at least).  In order to properly establish or re-establish bonds with people I care about, I will be more selective with how I communicate with them.  I won't have personal conversations with them via @ mentions.  I won't waste time trying to get my point across in a text when it will be much easier & richer to just call them.  I won't let the vastness of social networking stand between the close friendships that I have developed or am developing.  I want to do my part to look past the avatar & get to know the person sitting behind the keyboard.