Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S: Decompression and The Social Unplug

Written by T.D Moody

I find it amazing how fast and important social networking has become.  I remember as a high school kid one Social Studies teacher I had, telling our class that the future was in networking.  He went on to say, basically, when you get to college make as many friends as you can especially affluent ones.  This being due to it’s more a matter of who you know, not what you know.

I thought that a strange saying back then, but came to realize the truth in his statement.  Today’s world consists of a new “smart phone”, apps for just about anything, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and on and on to connect people all around the world.

What I see, is when ever one needs to get something done it’s rare that things get done without the aid of others.  This is true whether it’s in getting a new job, finding a great airline hookup,  for free upgrades and/or flights, or a bartender who comps a few rounds, or a door man at a club, or a real estate agent to find you the best available apt at a bargain.  Social networking is the wave of the future and it’s for that reason that I find it also a dangerous tool.

Aside from the fact that keeping up with so many “friends” be it on Facebook or Twitter or any other major social networking site, can feel like a 2nd or 3rd job.  Personally, I find it essential, not to be so plugged in to everything trying to keep up with so much information going on.  I’m also in favor of advocating decompression breaks at work where cell phone and computer use stops completely for an hour to allow one to relax and unplug for a bit from this crazy world we live in.

The dangerous aspect of social networking today is that it’s so instantaneous, one is capable of defamation for potentially hundreds of millions of people to see online immediately.  Or one’s entire personal history, information, & contacts grouped, arranged, then studied and monitored far more easily.  This is because the user of social network sites volunteers the info that is then collected and saved about them, their family and friends.

In my opinion it’s too much information to be floating around unprotected.  Privacy is the underlying issue.  However, for those who don’t find it a problem to have all their business exposed, that  doesn’t mean that the rest of society feels that way or should tolerate their right to privacy being discarded or treated as some old rag.  Eric Snowden’s exposure of this helps cement a healthy distrust of government in conjunction with the war on our civil liberties.

I’m in no way advocating completely severing all networking ties but being vigilant in what one uploads socially.  Clearly, today’s world says once it’s out there, it’s out there, fair game. By the way the protections built into the laws that allow corporations such as the telephone companies and internet service providers to violate personal privacy with no liability are nothing to laugh at either.  In effect one has no legal remedy to the overt and blatant trampling of their rights.

Subpoena or no, intrusions into the private lives of citizens will not make any one of us safer from terrorism.   This is a tactic to distract the public at large from the real issue, & gain support from the people to voluntarily submit themselves to total control and oppression if not suppression of life.

We have to really remind ourselves of the fact that most people wouldn’t be aware of the governments spying scandal if an insider (and now notorious) whistle-blower Eric Snowden hadn’t exposed it.  For his bravery he’s now being persecuted and labeled in mass media pretty much as an “enemy of the state“.  Why does the main stream media not keep the story focused on the content of his release versus the government’s pursuit of him?

Rationally thinking I have to conclude that it’s because he was working for them and violated the very trust they had placed in him that we the people are to misguidedly place in our “elected” officials in government making decisions that directly affect the lives of us the citizenry it’s supposed to serve and protect.  Which leads me to my next point.

I wonder if it’s just me or whether anyone else has thought about how social networking has changed us as a society from the standpoint that now some of us think we’re actually closer to people when right next to one another with the aid of an electronic device in our hands texting one another back and forth versus an audible real life conversation?

I’m not saying it’s not without some really cool and/or beneficial uses but it’s seemingly replaced the traditional sit down and honest talk of years past.  I suppose the logical explanation for this new trend in social interaction is the fact that one can see what it is one is about to say to someone else and decide if what they communicate comes across the way intended.

It also gives one the opportunity to analyze what another party is communicating before giving an answer.  Typically I find cell phones & tablets are a social prop much like a mask that one can hide behind instead of looking the person in the eye while talking face to face.

Expressions, and body language do speak volumes.  Thinking about all of that under a microscope without one’s personal permission, arbitrarily at the disposal of elites & the military industrial complex is a heinous and frightening idea.