Why Social Media Could Save The World

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Blogging, facebook, internet, myspace, pinterest, social good, social media, social networking, tumblr, twitter

Social Media has been blamed for teen depression, poor grades, crime, identity theft, data mining, censorship, divorce, envy, bullying, defamation, anti-semitism, and pretty much everything else.

In fact, if Facebook hadn’t been launched three years too late, I’m sure someone would have linked it to September 11th by now. 

But the fact remains that in a few short years, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have become so popular that they even get their own verbs.

Facebook, being the most popular social media company out there, tends to be the social media scapegoat, much the way that McDonald’s is the scapegoat for the fast food industry. They get blamed for everything the most.

Maybe it’s because nearly a billion people use Facebook to some extent and it bothers us that one company owns information on that many human beings.

Maybe it’s because breastfeeding photos are taken down, but holocaust denial groups and pro-anorexia boards thrive.

Maybe it’s because no one is entirely sure they understand their own privacy settings.

Maybe it’s because we want this excellent method of sharing our information with others to be (paradoxically) completely private.

Maybe it’s just that there’s something creepy and Big-Brotherish about Facebook and its ilk.

We are sure that all of this online sharing of information must be bad. Anything this addictive can’t be good.

Social Media is frequently labelled as the the downfall of true human interaction.

Studies have found that teens who use Facebook a lot are much more likely to be depressed, have lower grades, and all sorts of other problems in their lives. We talk a lot about how much social media is changing our world, and we’re pretty sure it’s for the worse.

We have never been more detached from one another, or lonelier. In a world consumed by ever more novel modes of socializing, we have less and less actual society. We live in an accelerating contradiction: the more connected we become, the lonelier we are. We were promised a global village; instead we inhabit the drab cul-de-sacs and endless freeways of a vast suburb of information.” – Stephen Marche, The Atlantic

But I disagree.

I think it could save the world.

In Which I Threaten to Descend Upon The Maritimes With Murderous Robots In My Wake

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bloggers, DoCo, Dooce, Nova Scotia, robots, travel, twitter

I’m going to be home in less than a month! 

Since Perfect Husband hasn’t been home for more than two or three days (at Christmas) in years, we’re taking a proper vacation in Nova Scotia. We’re going to catch up with old friends and relatives, make them all admire our baby while he spits up all over them, and then I’m going to dump water on his head.

I’m not religious, and PH is downright atheist, so a Christening seems a little odd, I know. But I believe in doing a naming ceremony for the baby. All cultures tend to have some form of tradition around naming the baby or welcoming him into the family, and in our culture, a Christening seems like the only way to do that. I wish we could just formally name him and welcome him to the family and eat cake without anyone trying to cleanse my child of inborn evil or dedicating his life to Christ, but that doesn’t appear to really be an option.

Plus, I think it’s important to my mother, who is the daughter of an Anglican minister.

In any case, I’m very excited to be going home. I am looking forward to seeing my friends, my family, and maybe taking Babby to Peggy’s Cove or my old university.

Among the many people I can't wait to see are my boy cousins, one of whom drew this awesome picture of my fur babbies

The extra-awesome thing is that the Halifax Meetup of Dooce Community members is totally happening while I’m home. I can’t wait to meet all of these bloggers. I hope they like me.

If anyone else wants to meet up with my while I’m in town, I’d love to schedule you in. Drop me an email or twitter or some such (I’d just like to point out that after all that pressure to join Twitter, I finally have and I only have 9 followers. I haven’t felt this much of a loser since I was one of the first people I knew on Facebook and wandered around going “hellooo? Is anyone else on here?”).

I’m leaving in midMay (since I don’t have the restriction of vacation time) and PH is joining me later. That means I’ll be flying across the country with Babby alone. AGAIN. It’ll be worth it, but oh boy, it’s going to be a long flight.

NOTE: to all of you creepy internet stalkers who think you know that my home will be empty and are already planning to break in and masturbate gloomily in the kitchen – TOO BAD! Perfect Husband will be home for the first while, and then when he leaves the house it will be guarded by robots with axes.

And they won’t be Asimov “Three Laws” robots. They’ll be, like, Chopping Mall robots.

So yeah. Watch out.

A very important poll

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opinion, Polls, social media, technology, twitter