The House with no Doors

When somebody visits you at your place on a fine weekend like this, do you lead them past your living room, straight into your bedroom? I think not. But I often find that we do this a lot with social media.

“Aww shit, here we go again.” 🙄

Think what you like, but it has to be said.

We push the boundaries too far with the use of the “Share” button. We’re sharing too much. So much that it creates a cacophony of noise enough to drive any sane person mad. Can we take a step back or two and re-examine this matter?

To be truthful, you don’t have to share.

I know social sharing has become an habitual behaviour in the 21st century world. It’s one of the ways technology has changed our lives. It’s nice that when you find a good meme you want to share it with your friends, to have a good laugh. Heck, you’re reading this piece now because I shared it.

We post stuff because we want to connect with someone else. That’s what this fuss is all about. We want to feel seen, appreciated and validated. It’s probably why people resort to social media as an escape. They feel as if they’re a part of something — an attractive sense of community. It’s why Chika in the Coal City of Enugu can plead himself to be a Wizkid stan even though he’s never seen the artiste. It explains the ongoing craze to be a Marlian (I miss the Sweet Boys Association days…sigh). Ah, I digress!

All I’m sayin’ is hitting the share button A LOT and at the slightest trigger is unhealthy.

I took a break from Twitter for a while now. I deleted the app and signed out on my computer. Although I haven’t been tweeting, but my head still thinks in tweets i.e I keep coming up with these short statements that could work as tweets. But since I have no way per se to share them on Twitter, I just shove them away or write.

We need to find better ways of managing our relationship with technology. We should not lose ourselves to the high that comes from likes and retweets.

My advice — Just live your life. Not every moment has to be on a screen. Nobody really cares.

Last last it’s all vanity metrics — the views, comments etc.

The way I see it, we’re still at the infancy of modern technology. There’s still so much to happen. Humans will merge more with machines — Social media, AI, 5G, VR, AR etc — these technologies are going to develop rapidly in coming years. They’ll further infiltrate every part of our lives.

It is therefore necessary to find a balance by doing “human things” when you should. Have a good meal, a face to face conversation, or watch an artiste perform live - without using a phone. Okay, maybe that part about the artiste is a bit too far but you get the point. You’ll notice how much more you enjoyed the moment. That, my friend, is what living is.

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