What Would Beabot Say?

What would I say? (what-would-i-say.com) is a site/app that is trending on Facebook as of the moment. I've seen a bunch of my friends use it, and honestly, most of the generated statuses were hilarious and spot-on. I decided to try it out, and it was... pretty weird but fun.

Something I noticed, however, was how freakishly close the words and phrases were to how I used to chat with people on Facebook. I felt the pressing sense of recognition enough times to realize that, yes, this app doesn't only collect data from your statuses and about page, it somehow gains access to your chat messages too. And yes, this app is a photocopying machine that reproduces your phrases down to the punctuation.

I admit, I've posted more than 20, 000 tweets on Twitter. That being said, privacy is still something I'm very particular and concerned with. I wouldn't ever allow social networking sites to determine my exact location much less post it anywhere. I am still an extremely paranoid person.

And, well, from that realization, my thoughts escalated quickly.

I know you've probably heard this before, but I realize how much advanced technology and a widespread communication system like ours is like a double-edged sword. We spend over an hour on the internet everyday broadcasting our thoughts, uploading our personal pictures and information; basically making ourselves more accessible to the world. Everyone is so public, in fact, that even people from far-off places can be reached. The sad part about this? We spend too much time trying to connect with people who are far away but those physically close to us are forgotten. And you can tell that the world is getting really pathetic when most face-to-face conversations are more awkward than those held online.

We are starting to rely too heavily on social networking sites and technology in general. A post on Facebook that doesn't generate any likes is worthless. People are starting to post everything online- and, yes, being able to document your thoughts/life events and share them with friends is what social networking is all about, but there is a limit. The way I see it, people have gotten so engrossed with making their lives seem interesting and fun that they've forgotten what real fun is.

This goes for me, too, because I am certainly guilty of doing these things all the time. And... here's the deal: while I want my generation to stop its addiction to the internet, I'm pretty sure the world is heading towards that direction. I'm pretty sure we're all too late to stop any of these trends. We aren't too far off from ending up like those fat earthlings in WALL-E.

In conclusion, while I believe that there is no hope for mankind to ever go back to the old ways, I do believe that there is hope for me as an individual. I believe that I can make my life more than just a series of images you can scroll past on Facebook or 20 thousand something pointless tweets.

I can't change the world, but coming to this realization and changing my habits is enough for me.



xoxo
Bea