More need to tweet

I've read that Twitter is a "sewer". And when I go on there I have to agree, there's a lot of bad stuff on there. And there are a lot of Twitter accounts that are obviously bots and not people. Still, Twitter is used as a quick way to get ideas out into the world, to carry on "conversations" with people we don't know, and to hurl insults and degrading comments anonymously.

All that being said, why don't all Congress members and senators tweet like Trump does? It would increase transparency and give us insight into the way that they think. My guess is that they are concerned that it would reduce their power and control or sense of control.

Mass media likes to act like they are reporting, but from what I've seen and heard they are basically running whatever they are told to run and tend not to actually do any real investigative work. I had a friend that went on several mass media outlets recently to talk about the government shutdown. He told me that every outlet he went to asked him for the questions he wanted asked. I found that to be very interesting.

Twitter is a way to circumvent all of that. Yes, you're in there with the rest of the dirt, but it is handy way to give short bursts of your thoughts and ideas to the world. Jump in!

Moment in history

One of the things I read and hear over and over is how things feel different to people. A phrase that keeps coming up in n supposed great thinker's writings is that "this moment in history feels different". I hear people commenting on how something is "making history". Marketers overuse the idea to draw attention. Young people are stressed out to the point of having supposed anxiety disorders. Why?

I think it's because fewer and fewer people in America are actually living. People disappear into heroic roles in games, mercilessly killing for hours in an effort to eke out another stop of dopamine in their brain. More people walk around augmenting their reality with hate- and vulgarity-filled music and podcasts. We binge watch shows that used to be designed for a season but are now designed to keep our attention for hours.

The reason this "moment in history" is different is because I'm in it! I'm living my life instead of watching/listening/reading about someone else's life.

And because this life is a unique experience it feels different from the artificial reality marketed to us.

So live you life! And remember: future people will look back and wonder why this stuff we're doing was so important to us. Live!