{"id":862,"date":"2019-03-28T08:56:38","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T14:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mandirigmafma.com\/?p=862"},"modified":"2019-03-28T08:56:38","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T14:56:38","slug":"the-internet-social-media-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mandirigmafma.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/28\/the-internet-social-media-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"THE INTERNET & SOCIAL MEDIA, PART 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Social media is not just slightly like an \u201cactual\u201d addiction akin to drugs, alcohol, and various others. Some reasons I find I continually come back to social media and continue posting, most of which I know are extremely unhealthy due to the backing reasoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. I\u2019m sometimes lonely in the real-world. I have few friends in this country. I\u2019m an immigrant (it\u2019s interesting that most North Americans call themselves \u201cexpats\u201d when settling abroad but call like-situations in their home country \u201cimmigration\u201d) from a continent that\u2019s often despised here for their political intervention, entitlement, and qualification as higher-quality people (1st-World vs. 3rd-World) I am often ostracized, ignored, or secretly resented, whether due to perception or reality from person in-question. Coupled with the fact I\u2019m now 46 and set in my ways, it\u2019s hard to make friends here\u2026.I really don\u2019t have any in the stereotypical definition of the word, so I stay to myself. The Internet offers an escape from this, especially when things aren\u2019t going well at home, which they can\u2019t always. My color\/nationality, outspokenness, comfort in my masculinity, and unwillingness to settle in a \u201csafe\/protected\u201d expat community of other North Americans have generally isolated me from acceptance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. I find a kinship with other people of like mind, both inner-industry and life-perspective. I find many don\u2019t think the way I do nor have my same views on all things self-defense-related or with life-outlook. Online I get a fix of this, where I\u2019ve found some people I generally like, trust, and can talk to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Addiction itself. I continue to go back out of pattern, routine, reflex. When there\u2019s a gap in my time, I instinctively see what\u2019s going on online. I post thoughts. I crave feedback. I like being \u201cliked.\u201d I am respected here where, outside of seminars\/workshops\/classes\/consultations \u2013 generally my own niche, I may not be in the real-world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"No<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

4. The false view I\u2019m making some small difference and that I\u2019m important or impactful. While less than the others, there is the small flame in the back of my mind that I and cohorts like me, may be having a positive effect on the way self-defense and personal protection are being thought of\u2026and it\u2019s untrue. Huge industry, microscopic niche. However, impact is both a moral\/value-driven positive and a self-delusional\/ego-driven negative. I have an ego and like to think people pay attention to what I say, which in the grand scheme of things, few do. That\u2019s the reality and my ego is inevitably moot, but we all need, crave, and maybe even deserve to be accepted in some way, through some avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion, none of these are healthy, productive reasons to waste as much time on the Internet as I do, yet I do. Why? I have a wonderful marriage. Great, loving, big-hearted kids. A solid business that I enjoy. A jungle-like garden and immediate accessibility to nature right outside my front door. Hobbies and passions that I\u2019m good at. Good parents. Yet I cannot seem to break entirely from being trapped in the Matrix. While it\u2019s easy to say that balance is key and none of us want to get left behind in the information age, I have recently found myself deeply-concerned at the long-term effects of prolonged and conditioned social media use. There\u2019s a niggling intuition in the back of my mind that there are costs to this. Costs that can end up being quite high. It may be only a \u201cI\u2019m-getting-older-and-I-don\u2019t-want-to-waste-precious-time-online-doing-things-that-are-generally-useless-with-many-people-I-don\u2019t-know-in-real-life-whatsoever\u201d vibe (I’m sure we’ve all thought this at some point)\u2026.or maybe something more sinister that, when combining the illogical reasons I can come up with above with the side-effects listed in Part 1, has consequences that are unknown and, therefore, disconcerting to me. Something to ponder for each of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Social media is not just slightly like an \u201cactual\u201d addiction akin to drugs, alcohol, and various others. Some reasons I find I continually come back to social media and continue posting, most of which I know are extremely unhealthy due to the backing reasoning. 1. I\u2019m sometimes lonely in the real-world. I have few friends … Continue reading THE INTERNET & SOCIAL MEDIA, PART 2<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mandirigmafma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mandirigmafma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mandirigmafma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mandirigmafma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mandirigmafma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mandirigmafma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mandirigmafma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions\/863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mandirigmafma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mandirigmafma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mandirigmafma.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}