"There's no point in spending your life in the pursuit of something that's easy." - Alice Kuipers

Friday, January 28, 2011

A Rant on Texting

I think today's young people are getting dumber. Seriously, people today have no English skills. They can't spell, their grammar is in the toilette, and acronyms run rampant. Why is everyone in such a hurry? OMG? Really? Is it that much faster to say the letters?
I blame texting for most of our problems. It started out as a useful tool for getting quick pieces of information to someone when you didn't have the time to call. That's all it's for. It's for simple messages, quick blurbs of essential information. "Honey, I'm in a meeting. I'll be home late." Done. Instead, everyone has extensive conversations with it. Why? Why can't you just phone the person and get it over with in a quarter of the time? How much time are all your acronyms saving you that you couldn't just dial the number and talk to the person? Don't even get me started on "sexts". Really? You want to impersonalize and short cut foreplay too? Cause that seems like a step in the opposite direction.
Now we have a generation of young people that can't spell or form a proper sentence to save their lives. In one of my other blogs, it becomes especially apparent in the commentary. I'm sorry, but if you can't form a sentence I don't authorize it, which means a lot of comments never see the light of day. It's their fault though, if I can't understand what point you're trying to make, how is anyone else? I just assume it's spam and throw it out.
The other thing that bothers me about texting is the exaggeration. LOL. Really? That comment actually made you laugh out loud? It wasn't that funny.  Maybe it made you smile, but laugh out loud? I don't believe you.
Twitter is another of my sworn enemies. I'm sick of people belting out tiny insignificant thoughts all day long. If it isn't something you can write a paragraph about, it probably isn't a great out loud thought. I like cookies, but I'm not going to tweet it. I'm going to think it and then move on, or possibly go get some cookies, but that's none of your business. All I'm saying is, there's a thousand better ways to communicate. Remember letters? When was the last time you received a handwritten letter in the mail? You want to make your BFF smile? (PS I HATE the term BFF) Write her a letter. Believe me, it's a thrill to receive something other than bills and flyers in the mail box. Plus, it shows that you were willing to take the time and put in the effort to make her smile... with complete sentences. Just a thought.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Why I Hate Social Media Sites

I've come to the conclusion that I really ought to delete my facebook profile. Here's the thing, it turns out I have no social skills. Apparently I am without a filter. Facebook actually causes me to hate people I normally would have liked. It's too revealing. People are self indulgent, hypocritical, judgmental (yes that one is me), and to be perfectly frank - unbelievably irritating. And I can't keep my mouth shut about it (obviously).
You see someone posting insanely personal information and you have to wonder, who is this for? For instance, a girl I had as a friend on facebook recently posted three messages in one day to her dead grandma. I knew this girl in high school. I barely know her now, and yet I'm looking at this deeply personal message to a deceased loved one and I found myself thinking, are you on crack? Why on Earth would you think this is a suitable medium for those thoughts? Don't you have any close friends you can call? A counselor you could talk to? Hell, even a journal would suffice. Why are you putting that up on facebook?
There are many other seriously annoying habits people have with facebook which I won't get into at this time. I've made enough enemies this week alone by being honest and blunt about my feelings on the matter. All I can say is, facebook seems to cheapen relationships. If it isn't important enough to pick up the phone and call me about, it probably isn't worth posting. I guess I'm just old fashioned, I prefer real conversation. The only posts I actually enjoy are the ones that make me laugh. If it doesn't serve a purpose, don't put it up. If we all asked ourselves 'who is this for?' before we posted anything, there'd be a lot less random shit I'd have to scroll through. And remember people, be a good friend - don't put up a chain post.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Brand New Year

Well it's a brand new year and I have a few resolutions. Now, normally I completely ignore New Year's eve. I hate it. It seems like such an arbitrary celebration; "hooray the calendar is changing over, let's get drunk!" But this year, I'm actually taking the time to make a few resolutions. I've never really done that before because usually I'm pretty happy with the state of things in my life.
This year I'm making a few goals and I intend to see them through. Am I going to tell you what they are? No, they're personal and none of your business. But the point is I'm making them. I even took a little time last night to put them down on paper and outline how I planned on accomplishing them. Pretty organized right? We'll see how it goes. Perhaps by the end of the year I'll be able to proudly announce my resolutions and tell you that I accomplished them all. Thankfully, losing weight isn't one of them. I feel bad for people who make that their new year's resolution. They never do it. They wind up sitting at the table, making the same list each and every year without ever seeing change. It's sad. I don't want to be like that, I want to see my goals through.
If anyone else out there has made resolutions, I wish you the best of luck and hopefully we can all hold our heads high this time next year.