instalife.

It is kind of an interesting thing... technology.  I have this drive to want to be on it; add pictures, create a network, find followers, & document my life, but at the same time I hate it.  I hate how absorbed I get & how much time it takes away from other things...

A few days ago when I reactivated my facebook & started instagramming again, I became absorbed in everything.  The bright colors, the new updates of video captioning, adding new friends to make the relationship "real," & re-documenting my past three months with none of it.

Despite my love of adding pictures, life without facebook & instagram wasn't all that hard.  I actually rarely thought that I was missing out because I was outside, exploring the world, & interacting with so many different people.  Of course I wanted to share my thoughts & pictures... & that's where this wonderful blog came into play, but in the end... each day I spent enjoying "living in the moment" rather than what other people were doing.

I always think about that commercial... it was probably a car commercial, where this girl was at home checking her friends on facebook & laughing about the lack of friends her parents had.  While she was living the "real" life on her computer with tons of friends, her parents were active biking & climbing mountains.  Facebook & instagram create sort of an "instalife" for people... an interactive network of non-verbal & non-confrontational communication.  But is it real?

No one can rely on anything that you find merely on a computer of phone screen.  People are not themselves & information can come from anywhere with the click of a button.  "It has to be true if you read it on the internet..."  Right?  No.  That commercial pretty much said it all.  People are the same way.  No one is 100% themselves when protected by a computer screen.  That physical barrier controls important one-on-one communication.

I say all this, but we all know I will never actually remove my social media.  We all know that a relationship isn't "real" until it is "FBO" (facebook official).  And we all know that social media is just a huge component of the world these days... even tutoring programs, such as Study Edge, use facebook to connect & organizations form groups to keep everyone informed on meetings & executive information.

So much good comes from technology & social media despite the downfalls.  Communication across seas is almost impossible without it.  Facebook makes conversation abroad manageable & obviously cheaper & keeps ties with those that we may need to re-connect.  It isn't all that bad... I just wish it wasn't so absorbing.

My "instalife" rekindled a few days ago after a minor hiatus... when did yours?

Ciao-Ciao