The Social Media Generation - A Short Essay
NoGuide
Posts: 2
Those of us born after Lennon died and before the Berlin Wall came down are at the forefront of the emergence of Social Media. We are the ones who literally, created and supported Facebook (which took the baton from MySpace and ran, leading to YouTube and Twitter). Look at all the stats you want. It was us. And a new media was embraced by like-minded people because the rest of you – the ones who grew up without cell phones and have families of your own and cling to the old – are too afraid to admit that the current economy is eating itself to death. “You’re captives of a civilizational system that compels you to go on destroying the world in order to live” (Quinn). Oil companies have become the bane of our existence, but they are not the only ones decimating the environment. What some people don’t seem to understand about science and nature is that everything is in a state of balance. If you change that balance too quickly, the Earth’s ecosystem will reject whatever is doing the damage. That means you, Homo sapiens. Read your Darwin or ask Stephen Hawking if you don’t believe it.
The Magna Carta was signed in 1215, yet in 2011; banks, insurance, governments, dictators, corporations, moneylenders & money printers can live above the law, while contributing little. Nothing stops them from being useless middlemen or sacred cows if they choose; they can abuse the system and get away with it. Orwell called our economy a “free-for-all in which the worst man wins”... Therefore, the system needs to change, and it will. You can’t stop it anymore. Don’t you get it? It’s Social Media and by extent, the Internet, that will allow the change to happen. In fact, it’s already happening. You can fight it all you want. One day everyone who grew up without a cell phone will be dead. Their children and grandchildren will have all grown up with the Internet and Social Media, so they’ll have no excuses for being ignorant, uneducated and close-minded. Imagine a planned economy based on actual resources.
Money is not real. It’s a waste of a piece of a tree. Debt is not real, because everything is already borrowed. The Earth gives us life and demands we live in harmony with it. One human being owes nothing to another; read some philosophy on Wikipedia (it’s free), perhaps JJ Rousseau or Marx. And inflation is make-believe. Nothing can grow for a period of infinity. It breaks the fundamental law of nature; that things work in cycles. Haven’t you read Flowers for Algernon? Have you seen Awakenings?
So here’s a story that was given to a member of the Social Media Generation by a lovely, elderly professor, who wanted us students to be free. My hope is that we all become one generation who makes money work for us and not the other way around:
A successful businessman from New York, on a touring holiday in Mexico, stopped in a small fishing village. A keen deep-sea fisherman, he paid a boat captain, lounging on the dock, to take him out to out to the reef in his small motorboat. After half an hour the American had caught so many large, high-quality fish that the boat captain suggested they return to shore at once. He remarked that the American could not possibly eat all the fish he caught, and fishing any longer would only result in a greater waste of fish.
The American agreed, but on the way back to port, he learned that the fisherman fished for just an hour or two per day. When he asked the fisherman where the rest of the day went, the boat captain said:
“I sleep late every morning, have a leisurely breakfast, fish a little, play with my children and have lunch. After lunch my wife and I have a siesta, then in the evenings I go into the village to the tavern where I meet my friends for a drink, play my guitar and sing a few songs before returning home. I lead a full and carefree life.”
“But you are wasting a great opportunity!” cried the American. “There are so many fish on the reef that, if you stayed out all day, you could make lots of money. I have a Harvard MBA and I could help you become a successful businessman. If you fished all day, you would make such a profit that soon you could buy a second fishing boat, then another and another. In a few years of hard work, you could own a whole fishing fleet! I could show you how to get bank loans to set up your own fish processing plant, cutting out the middleman. You could be at the head of a large corporation in 15 to 20 years.”
“Really? And what after that?” asked the fisherman.
“You could list your company on the stock exchange and perhaps move to Mexico City or even Los Angeles as CEO of a big ocean products corporation. With more hard work, and when you have repaid the banks of course, with a little luck you might even have the biggest fisheries operation on the West Coast in, say, another 20 years or so. You could be rolling in money!”
“And what after that?”
“After that! After building your corporation over a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice, you would finally be able to enjoy the fruits of your labors! Every morning you could sleep late, have a leisurely breakfast, enjoy a little fishing, play with your grandchildren, take a siesta after lunch, and spend the evening hours drinking, playing your guitar and singing at the tavern with your friends.”
The Magna Carta was signed in 1215, yet in 2011; banks, insurance, governments, dictators, corporations, moneylenders & money printers can live above the law, while contributing little. Nothing stops them from being useless middlemen or sacred cows if they choose; they can abuse the system and get away with it. Orwell called our economy a “free-for-all in which the worst man wins”... Therefore, the system needs to change, and it will. You can’t stop it anymore. Don’t you get it? It’s Social Media and by extent, the Internet, that will allow the change to happen. In fact, it’s already happening. You can fight it all you want. One day everyone who grew up without a cell phone will be dead. Their children and grandchildren will have all grown up with the Internet and Social Media, so they’ll have no excuses for being ignorant, uneducated and close-minded. Imagine a planned economy based on actual resources.
Money is not real. It’s a waste of a piece of a tree. Debt is not real, because everything is already borrowed. The Earth gives us life and demands we live in harmony with it. One human being owes nothing to another; read some philosophy on Wikipedia (it’s free), perhaps JJ Rousseau or Marx. And inflation is make-believe. Nothing can grow for a period of infinity. It breaks the fundamental law of nature; that things work in cycles. Haven’t you read Flowers for Algernon? Have you seen Awakenings?
So here’s a story that was given to a member of the Social Media Generation by a lovely, elderly professor, who wanted us students to be free. My hope is that we all become one generation who makes money work for us and not the other way around:
A successful businessman from New York, on a touring holiday in Mexico, stopped in a small fishing village. A keen deep-sea fisherman, he paid a boat captain, lounging on the dock, to take him out to out to the reef in his small motorboat. After half an hour the American had caught so many large, high-quality fish that the boat captain suggested they return to shore at once. He remarked that the American could not possibly eat all the fish he caught, and fishing any longer would only result in a greater waste of fish.
The American agreed, but on the way back to port, he learned that the fisherman fished for just an hour or two per day. When he asked the fisherman where the rest of the day went, the boat captain said:
“I sleep late every morning, have a leisurely breakfast, fish a little, play with my children and have lunch. After lunch my wife and I have a siesta, then in the evenings I go into the village to the tavern where I meet my friends for a drink, play my guitar and sing a few songs before returning home. I lead a full and carefree life.”
“But you are wasting a great opportunity!” cried the American. “There are so many fish on the reef that, if you stayed out all day, you could make lots of money. I have a Harvard MBA and I could help you become a successful businessman. If you fished all day, you would make such a profit that soon you could buy a second fishing boat, then another and another. In a few years of hard work, you could own a whole fishing fleet! I could show you how to get bank loans to set up your own fish processing plant, cutting out the middleman. You could be at the head of a large corporation in 15 to 20 years.”
“Really? And what after that?” asked the fisherman.
“You could list your company on the stock exchange and perhaps move to Mexico City or even Los Angeles as CEO of a big ocean products corporation. With more hard work, and when you have repaid the banks of course, with a little luck you might even have the biggest fisheries operation on the West Coast in, say, another 20 years or so. You could be rolling in money!”
“And what after that?”
“After that! After building your corporation over a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice, you would finally be able to enjoy the fruits of your labors! Every morning you could sleep late, have a leisurely breakfast, enjoy a little fishing, play with your grandchildren, take a siesta after lunch, and spend the evening hours drinking, playing your guitar and singing at the tavern with your friends.”
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Comments
My only object here would be a possible implication that most people born before John Lennon died are ignorant and/or responsible for the mess where in. I'm referring to this statement:
"One day everyone who grew up without a cell phone will be dead. Their children and grandchildren will have all grown up with the Internet and Social Media, so they’ll have no excuses for being ignorant, uneducated and close-minded."
Hey, just because I grew up in the days of the Pony Express, Morse telegraphs and smoke signals, that doesn't mean I'm ignorant, uneducated or close-minded.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Quit being so grumpy.
What have YOU done lately?
If I opened it now would you not understand?
I gave all my earthly belongings to Goldman Sachs and went up on a hill to watch the new world unfold.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Lol.
This would make a good song lyric too.
If I opened it now would you not understand?
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
not all are ignorant, but a lot are. Im worried that social media is actually burying FACTS in the piles of drivel that make up the internet
I agree, but I think the same can be said pretty much across the board with all generations. I do, however, understand and support the idea of younger generations critiquing older ones while at the same time learn to think critically and the gain ability to recognize wisdom and discern the difference between wisdom and bullshit when they see it. And we who are older should not discount the idea that someone younger might have better ideas.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
good post
The young should also except that some ideas ( however great) may not work. and that our experience know that. and it should be respected.
a lot of things that I used to jump up and down about as a younster I know understand the limitations of
Hail, Hail!!!
The wisdom that the old can't give away"
Great post. But I don't think the problem is social media nor Generation Y who doesn't know what it's like to live without the internet. It's the universal preoccupation that success and money brings ultimate happiness and that idea spans generations, sadly. Those lucky enough to know the difference and change their ways are the ones who are truly rich.
Sarcasm? Or has Drifting gone the "if ya can't beat 'em, join 'em" route?
P.S., good to see you around here again, whatever "side" you are on