The story of the technophobe

I'll begin by acknowledging the hypocrisy of this post and reiterate that I am most definitely not a technophobe. I don't shy away from technology and find that it is very much ingrained into my everyday, in the same way brushing my teeth is part of my daily routine.

That being said I'm finding myself increasingly exasperated with social media. Perhaps I'm being exuberant in my disdain but I'm beginning to think it interrupts life as opposed to enriching it. As aforementioned this is a somewhat hypocritical statement being that I use it to keep in touch with people and certainly do the whole 'show boating' thing when I upload pictures. Nor, for that matter, can I describe myself as being a private person when I write a blog. So I ask myself, why do I do this? Why do I take pages of my life and display them for all the interweb to see? Do I need clarification, is it that I'm seeking validity from you my anonymous peers? Is it simply to allow my far flung friends to see what I'm up to? Its hard to ascertain my motivations, it started because of surfing and the more I'm unable to actually go surfing the more I seem to write about it on here.

Facebook, twitter, myspace all these things in my opinion should be like a side dish, its nice to have them there in the background but the main meal is a life lived outside of a monitor or a phone screen. I sometimes feel that experiences are overshadowed by the need to document every moment, a quick post here or a tweet and suddenly you've stopped experiencing what it is you were originally there for. Social media is a breeding ground for envy, I know myself I've often looked at friends in exotic destinations and felt the bitter pang of jealousy, why aren't I in Thailand/Australia/some gorgeous tropical beach?

In many ways social media has been a vector for change, its brought us closer together and provided a platform for politics and campaigns to speak out. On the flipside it has also made us into a twitching society, one which updates and tags at every moment.

I suppose like anything, its all about moderation.  

Surfing has been called an addiction, a passion, a way of life. It can be a completely selfish pastime and with anything has its downsides. That being said when your bobbing in a line up, looking out at the sunrise the feeling is indescribable, something which can never be summarised by a wall post or a tweet. 

Thank God.