A Perfect Day
Rippin the Roy!
I call this post my ode to Instagram. If this were Instagram, I would have ended the post with the caption above. The reason I have a blog is that I like to write and arguably Instagram is not the place for that sort of thing. Of course, neither is TikTok, X, or Facebook. I’ve read that people should be familiar with TikTok slang and be able to use it to relate to younger generations. (You would be correct in assuming I am an older generation.) For example, I could have added the hashtag “xyzbca” to the above photo as a means of pointing out how cool the photo was. That’s not going to happen here. I think words are enough.
I will say the following about today’s social media platforms, you don’t have to know how to read to use them. To be frank, I think it is one of the design goals of the developers. All of the social media platforms mentioned above are designed to influence us in some way. You can say that about any form of communication, this writing included, but I think it is especially true about those sites and many other social media sites. Social media presents us with unsubstantiated ideas. By that, I mean there are often few if any facts to back up the propositions being put forward. I know what you are thinking, where are your facts for this garbage you are throwing out here? It’s simple, what I’m telling you amounts to my opinion, the difference is I’m making no effort to have this particular piece of my opinion sound like fact.
All of this is what you might want to think of as a tangent. It is my opinion that Instagram is the least dangerous social media platform, but still can be used for subtle forms of influencing. It is my opinion that X, TruthSocial, and even Facebook are a waste of time. I’ve seen too many people get hurt on Facebook, and I think X and TruthSocial (and others like them) are a complete waste of time. Not only that, they are dangerous. They can (and have) led us down paths that could ultimately change our society in ways that are intended to benefit a few, rather than benefit the many. Yes, that’s my opinion.
Something else to consider, not just my opinion, but the opinion of a growing number of social scientists, there is an expanding body of evidence-based studies showing the negative impact of smartphones on child development. (Smartphones are of course the portal to social media.) In short, the environment created by smartphones is hostile to children’s development. Here’s one example of the research: End the Phone-Based Childhood Now. This post now officially qualifies as a screed.
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