My smart phone is not making me stupid, YOU ARE

I'm surprised in this day and age that people keep repeating cliches as much as they do. One of my LEAST favorite cliches is that smart phones are making us dumber. Thirty years ago, none of us even had personal computers and now we all literally carry one around everywhere we go. There's more information at our fingertips than every before.

But you're thinking "that's not what people use phones for!", and you'd be right. At any given moment, there probably are a lot of people using their smart phones for just social media or games. So I guess what I object to is when someone says it makes ME dumber. Do you know why I'm reading my phone when I'm around you? Because you bore the piss out of me. You drone on and on about things that probably aren't true. And since I don't have to go grab a newspaper anymore, I can open up an app and read news from around the world. When you tell me that President Obama is really a citizen of Kenya, you know why I get on my phone? So I can take those nugget of bullshit and look it up. I mean, I'm not gonna tell you you're wrong because, hey, you saw it on ONE SITE the internet so it must be true. I'm on my phone because I literally don't care about what you're saying. So I'm reading. Checking the news. Looking to see how my team is doing. A long standing group text with my high school buddies. And yet, you keep interrupting me with drivel.

When people used to read magazines and novels, did prognosticators say that it was the end of modern civilization because people didn't talk to each other any more? When TV's began appearing in every living room, did they say that people don't socialize any more and we're all doomed? (Maybe they did, but they were wrong).

What I find ironic is that the very same people who are complaining about people being on their phones too much are the very same people WHO ARE ALWAYS ON THEIR OWN PHONE. Guess it's OK, then.

Next time you see someone on their phone around you in a social situation, I want you to consider the very real possibility that they may be on their phone because what they're looking at is much more interesting than you. That's right. You probably got bumped by Angry Birds or Kim Kardashian's twitter feed. Try being more interesting. At least more interesting than those two things.

I'm a quitter

I did it. I quit Facebook. I didn't do it the right way - I didn't announce it and wait for the ensuing pity party, "OMG, please don't go, We'll miss you, BLAH BLAH BLAH". You see those every once in awhile and you want to scream. Facebook is making us all dumber and more narcissistic. It's not Facebook's fault. They probably had no idea (back when they started it)  that the average human is so self obsessed. So I just stopped.

I had been thinking about it for awhile. I mean, I had hidden so many people that it was just becoming a news feed for me. And there's certainly better ways to get news than FB. I couldn't believe how many people - people I thought were intelligent and decent - were spreading stories that are absolutely full of crap. But I guess if it fits the narrative of what they believe, well then it must be true. I don't know who said it. but some brilliant mind captured it. "If it ain't true, it ought to be". Even before the stories started coming out about FB's role in the election and how they spread fake news stories, I knew something was amiss. Collectively, we used to look down on Wikipedia for being a shady source of information. Turns out, that community does a better job of fact checking than the average moron. God forbid we verify the source of information we consume. That takes time, and most people don't have time to verify the regurgitated BULLSHIT that they spread. 

I will miss seeing updates and pictures from people I really care about, but it's not like connecting to people is that hard any more. I really don't have much of a presence on social media anyway. It's been almost two weeks and no one has noticed that I'm not on FB. So I can do one of two things. I can sign on again and say "I'm back, bitchez!" Apparently that's good for some egos. Or I can just stay off and consume information from better aggregates. Which is what I will do for now. In the meantime, you'll just have to let me know when Angelina Jolie gets caught in a three way with Drake and Paul Ryan. Egad.

Repost if......

I'm really tired of Facebook "friends" asking me to repost a message or picture if I'm against child abuse or breast cancer. I thought we agreed a long time ago, as a society, that those things were bayd M'kay? Rather, let's ask someone to repost if they are PRO child abuse/breast cancer, then go beat the crap outta that guy. Better yet, close out Facebook, get off your butt and go volunteer at an orphanage. I mean, since your concerned about the kids and all.
Also, drug testing every welfare recipient in this country won't save us $. It will, however, make drug testing labs very rich.
So repost if you are too lazy to look up facts or inaction suits you well.

How did we get this collectively stupid?