What has social media done to us???
What the hell is going on out there in the world? The other day I was in West Hollywood for my dress fitting. Specifically I was on Melrose Avenue. I love West Hollywood, I just wish it wasn’t such a drama to get there from where I live. Although not being so close to that neck of the woods probably saves me a ton of money, so it’s not all bad. What I noticed when I was there was all sorts of weirdness taking place around buildings with pink walls, and walls with sayings on them like; “MADE IN LA.” There are trendy coffee shops with people lined up outside them, waiting to get in. Tripods positioned on the streets in front of parked cars.
For what? What were all these people doing lined up in front of these walls, the coffee shops, and why do they have tripods positioned in front of cars?
It took me a few trips to this section of LA before I finally put the pieces together, when I finally realized what was going on.
The people who were waiting, lining up, and setting up the tripods were doing it so that they could get the “perfect” photo. Not for a scrap book, not for a photo album. No nothing old fashioned like that, people were lined up for no other reason than to get the “perfect” photo so that they could edit it, add a filter and then post it at exactly the right time of day to get the optimum exposure to ensure the maximum number of likes to help them feel better about themselves for the day.
Friends. What is wrong with us? What has happened to us? When did going out to grab a coffee, or a bite with a friend require that you go somewhere that has a huge Instagram following just so people can stand over their cups of coffee taking dozens of photos to prove to their followers that they were there. I don’t get it. I take photos of shit because I love where I’m going, or who I’m hanging with. Not because I saw it on Instagram. I’ve personally yet to go somewhere because I saw it on Instagram. Oh, don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of restaurants, or meals that I’ve seen posted on social media that I’ve thought; “wow that looks delicious, I should go there.” Then I get busy, and I forget that I even wanted to go there. How do people not only know remember that they want to go to these places, but organize themselves to get to the pink wall on Melrose Avenue to take the multiple photos? And why, oh why are people setting up tripods on the street and posing in front of cars that most likely don’t even belong to them???
What are we doing?? Why does any of this even matter. The coffee we’re drinking, which cafe it comes from, and standing in front of walls with sayings. What does it all mean??? Who cares about any of it???
I spent years not being on social media, I had decided that I would be a hold out; that I would never get Twitter, or Instagram. Yet here I am. On both of them. Everybody told me; “you can’t write books, or certainly cannot expect to sell them if you’re not on social media.” So I bought into it, and here I am. And now that I am I’m blown away on a daily basis about what people get up to out there. The amount of soft porn that I see girls under 18 posting is mind blowing. Like where are their parents? How is this a thing that is happening? Then there are all the food posts, people spend more time photographing their food than they do eating it. It is insane. It is so weird. As I scroll through my feeds, and watch the strange human behaviours unfold in front of me I can’t help but ask myself; “what do the aliens think of us? Do they find us as weird as I find us???”
Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm.
