It’s a pretty sad state of affairs, actually, but it’s also
absolutely true. We’re entitled.
Absolutely and completely. As a nation,
we’re better than everyone and anyone else on the planet, and we make no bones
about telling anyone who’ll listen.
Don’t believe me, just open up your web browser and go to
just about any site. You’ll find people
displaying bad behaviors and then getting upset at being called out about it.
You’ll see people shouting at workers in drive-through
windows at a fast food place, people shouting at customer service people on the
phone, people punching and beating each other up, and then posting videos of
these atrocities online. All of this
because we can, not because we should, but because we can.
Inside, we feel like we have to.
It’s our duty. We’ve been
“wronged” by this other person and we
have to let the entire planet know about it.
We upload videos and audio clips, pictures, graphics, just
anything we can in our desperate attempt to get back at this person for what
he/she did to us.
We’re so livid, and so angry, and so pissed off that we don’t
take time to think about whether or not we should.
And it’s way beyond just entitlement. It’s to the point of flat-out stupid
behavior. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
“But what do I do
about this?”
That’s a very good question, actually, and the possibilities
are limitless.
One solution is to simply stop using that service, or retail
store, or whatever the business happens to be.
There was a news report on TV recently that sited the number
of times a “typical” American teenager posts to the most popular sites online,
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Facebook status updates: 50
in one hour.
Instagram “selfie” uploads: 600
in one hour.
Twitter updates: 75
in one hour.
This was just for one teenage girl. What did her mother have to say about it?
“Well, I tried to stop
her. I took her cell phone away, but she
just got on her iPad and did it anyway.
So, I took that away and she got on her computer. What can I do? I don’t want to hurt her feelings.”
Wow, really?? My suggestion is to take those things away
and have her earn them back. One at-a-time, and then you, her parent,
monitor everything she does with those devices. Parenting is not a spectator sport. It is,
however, one in which you actively participate.
Daily. Hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute.
Now, not being a “user” on any of these sites, I can only
assume that there must be a fire somewhere in which those teens are involved,
otherwise, why the “need” to post pretty much the same information on those
particular sites over a sixty minute period?
Instagram is the one where you’d post pictures, selfies, if
you will. 600 in one hour though? Yeah, that seems a bit excessive. I mean, really,
does one physically change that much in one hour? Now, I could understand, particularly with
teenage girls, if you’d just gotten your hair or nails done and you wanted to
share that with your friends, sure, it almost makes sense.
Facebook status updates. Hmm, not sure about the “need” for
these at all.
Got up. Went to bathroom. No movement this morning; will try again in
an hour. Having coffee. Cat scratched me
for “stealing” the newspaper from her.
(Note to self: No kitty treats
for Ms. Fluffie this afternoon.) Ha!
Even I don’t find updates that
interesting.
Twitter? Aren’t those
just text messages from mobile devices that go through a server at the Twitter
Offices in Cupertino, California?
Hardly seems worth it just to let a third party read your private
texts. Unless, of course, they’re “sexts”.
That would almost be
worthwhile. (Oh, wait. Teens are already sending each other nude
pictures through Instagram.)
It’s one thing to report bad behaviors of a certain nature
(inappropriate behaviors from wait staff, or a sales clerk), but to then publicly shame that person on
social media for the entire planet to see.
Yeah. Wow. Way overboard.
Step back, and take a deep breath. Count to 10, because I’m telling you, in 10
years, hey, in 5 years, none of those rants and nasty comments and explicit
videos or audio clips will matter to anyone, anywhere. Remember the "Yer gettin' a Dell, dude?" Yeah, me neither. Or "Alex-From-Target"?
But, those things could very well get your fired from your
job. It’s happened, more often that you
think. Employers absolutely follow your activity on social media. And some even, DO, have eyes in the back of their heads.
So, just perhaps, the next time you feel like going off on someone “just to prove a point”,
the next time you’re about to press “Send” in order to upload that video to
YouTube, step back and breathe.
Bottom line: It’s
probably not worth it.
