.  In 2010, the idea of “social media” isn’t exactly new.  Some communities like Facebook have proven useful for staying connected with friends and family (after you get over the obligatory “OMG, my Mom is on facebook now” moment it seems every college student has).  But it seems like it’s a different form of communication; instead of communicating with (to?) others in real time, you can very selectively pick and choose which version of yourself you wish to show the world.  Our tweets, pictures, updates and friends aren’t just chosen as expressions of ourselves, but to portray how we want others to see us.  It doesn’t take very long before this starts interfering with who we really are.  In a column entitled, “I Tweet, Therefore I Am,” Peggy Orenstein explores this:

“The expansion of our digital universe… has shifted not only how we spend our time but also how we construct identity. For her coming book, ‘Alone Together,’ Sherry Turkle, a professor at M.I.T. interviewed more than 400 children and parents about their use of social media and cell phones. Among young people especially she found that the self was increasingly becoming externally manufactured rather than internally developed: a series of profiles to be sculpted and refined in response to public opinion. ‘On Twitter and Facebook you’re trying to express something real about who you are,’ she explained. ‘But because you’re also creating something for others’ consumption, you find yourself imagining and playing to your audience more and more. So those moments in which you’re supposed to be showing your true self become a performance.’”

.  With social media so prevalent, you may find yourself framing how you’ll share the experience, while you’re still having the experience.  As Brett & Kate McKay wrote: 

If you’re already thinking, “Wait until my friends see this!” you’ve left the realm of being present in the moment.

.  This became fairly obvious to me last month when Cat and I went with a few friends to a Train concert.  A good portion of the audience spent their time watching the band through the tiny screen on their phones or cameras as they tried to get the entire concert on video.  It actually caused me to enjoy my time at the concert less; as an audio/videophile, it was almost physically distressing to envision how terrible those recordings were going to be.  No one will ever watch their terrible concert video.  The audio quality alone would make me want to punch a baby, let alone the video; that small of a lens, in those lighting conditions, from a distance with no stabilization?  Please.  So many of the concert-goers around us were so focused on their soon-to-be epic youtube video that a lot of them didn’t seem to be really enjoying the concert itself.

.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with a momentary pause for a picture, say, on a hiking trip.  As long as the focus is more on the experience than the photos you’re going to post or the tweets you’re sending out to let everyone know how awesome your life is.  As Marcus Aurelius said, “We can live only in the present moment, in this brief now; all the rest of our life is dead and buried or shrouded in uncertainty. Short is the life we lead and small our patch of earth.”  This might have something to do with my lack of posts to flikr, twitter, facebook, et al.  I’d rather just enjoy my time at the beach, and, seriously, who cares what you people think, anyway?  I’ve already somehow deluded Cat into thinking that I’m awesome; time to rest on my laurels.

.  tl;dr In no way is my lack of posts and photos out of crippling procrastination or laziness; It’s due to a philosophical high-ground.  And you all look so silly from up here in my ivory tower.