SOCIAL MEDIA.......A DECADE LATER

If I had the dime for every time I hear the term social media chances are I'd probably be very popular at my local strip establishment of choice. While Social Media is one of the most annoying, overused terms ever it does make me think back to when I first joined Facebook. To me Facebook was somewhat useless, but fast forward nearly a decade and Facebook, like twitter. has become a part of my daily routine. It's funny though, Facebook has a feature that allows you to see how long a person has been your friend. It's incredible to imagine that some of these "friendships" are six and seven years old. You may never meet these people but in you are tied to their lives in a very real and sometimes emotional way. With social media you witness triumph, tragedy, success, failure. I'm not a huge advocate for social media, not at least from a super personal perspective but I am impressed nonetheless at how this phenomenon has taken the pen pal relationship to a whole new level.

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE TRUE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

There are billions of people on this earth, each with a different opinion. Social media outlets, our Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, and other mediums are our collective voice. We have a way to express our  likes, dislikes, and opinions. No one man, nor any legislative body can speak for us collectively. Yes we face a lot of things with social media that we did not normally have to worry about.

We face identity theft, we face stalkers, but really we face danger every day so social media is no different. With social media we make friends, business connections, we discover new interests and sometimes we discover our true weakness. Social media connects us with family that we otherwise would not be connected with.

Social media has accomplished what no other advent ever could, it has homogenized the world. We all have one thing that can link us together no matter how far apart geography can put us.

HASHTAG, POUND SIGN, NUMBER SIGN, TIC TAC TOE, LINES SQUARED

I was watching the Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon hashtag skit and laughing and suddenly I realized that jackassery has run away with society. If you are wondering what I mean, please allow me to elaborate. The number sign has evolved into a way for people to state what their feelings are without actually taking the time to write an articulate sentence. I get it, I think it's cool that we want to be less complicated as a society but # FUCK.

If you want to say you are happy in writing I have a perfect solution and that is writing " I'm happy today" as opposed to # Happy, # Got laid Friday, # Sexomatic. People have actually take to using words that do not exist through the use of the tic tac toe board. I am impressed about one thing though and that is the versatility of this symbol.

Prince, an all time great, was once known as a symbol and yet his symbol did not really last. I think that maybe Prince should have called himself Hashtag, or the currently #Prince, maybe prince would still be selling Purple Rain numbers. I want to pin the use of the hash on every dried up bitch of a high school english teacher # Old Whore, # Killed Shakespeare, # Got the pension.

I remember that abbreviation in writing was a no no back in the day, the problem was that when it happened we were chastised and ridiculed. Now everyone uses the hashtag, I wonder if in the future the hashtag will become a part of # grammar. I think this epidemic, trend, or whatever the fuck it is, may well be a conspiracy between trekkies, and other # never got laid fanboys, to start some sort of space language. I wonder how exactly we would express love with the hashtag in terms of love.

I just don't subscribe # out of touch, # I don't really give a fuck, # hash is a hell of a drug, # hash is in a brownie too motherfucker.

DIGITAL HIGHLANDER

I read an article about the management of Facebook pages belonging to those that have passed on. The article basically says that some states are looking into creating a bill that takes a deceased person's social media page and hands it over to the executor of the person's estate.

This is great idea but at the same time kind of morbid. I am surprised that Facebook is being referred to as a digital asset. I guess this is a sign of the times, we live in an age where what we have online is almost as important as our day to day lives. I can imagine what a last will and testament with Facebook stipulations would read like:

I Ric Acevedo of sound mind and body do hereby bequeath control of my digital assets to my son provided that the following stipulations are met within ten days of my passing.

1. Tell friend #12 that I do like that.
2. Reveal something shocking for every 100 likes.
3. Make a fan page for my funeral.
4. Send out 6,000 invitations to Farmville, Lucky Slots, and Diamond Dash.
5. Have a kinky Arena memorial. 
6. Like at least twenty random pages. 
7. Inbox that sexy prostitute and book her as a gag.

I guess it's necessary to keep things in order in this digital age especially when you consider there are well over a billion active users in the world of social media. There was mention of this kind of legislature helping bring closure to families. I think that it's noble to assume families can get closure but truthfully if a media page stays open I think it further drives home that feeling of loss and pain. 

I like to think that we have reached the era of digital immortality if this legislature is passed on a federal level. Someone call Christopher Lambert and Adrian Paul because I have a script for " Highlander: The Social Media Quickening."