…and no one is listening?
A rant is defined as to “speak or shout at length in a wild, impassioned way”, a spell of ranting, a tirade. Lately it seems to me that no one is listening, no matter how informed or reasonable the statement, because to listen is to possibly admit that the preconceived notion upon which one has built their worldview might have to be modified, even in the slightest, to accommodate this outside perspective. So, people turn off, tune out, and drop in, giving their +1 sign of approval and feel like they have contributed something more than activating a single pixel on the digital graffiti of someone else. They feel good. They’ve given a thumb’s up to the cosmos, to show that they are in alignment. They belong. They are IN.
Suddenly, all is groovy in the Universe, and they can sleep better at night, knowing that they have placed their +1 somewhere that will do some good, right some wrong, create justice where there was none.
THEY HAVE DONE SOMETHING.
Well, what have they done?
They clicked a box, a thumb, a post, a button – moved a mouse to align with the activation point, then triggered the left button by moving a finger. They lifted a finger! And to think that some say that people won’t even lift a finger to help!
According to one writer, they have burned off 1.4 calories. This translates to 5857.6 joules., or 5.8576 kilo-joules. This is barely the equivalent of a single small bite of a slice of pizza. Nearly nothing, in other words.
So, the bottom line is that what is interpreted as meaningful action in our modern world of social media is nothing more than a smokescreen designed to keep people fat and lazy, perpetuating the cycle that got us all in this fix in the first place.
Don’t believe me? Watch the next time you try to tell your best friend about something that means something to you, but not necessarily to them, or something they might not agree with. See how long it takes before they change the subject. See how long it takes for you to do the same thing to them.
ARE YOU LISTENING?
http://gizmodo.com/5989869/how-many-calories-does-a-mouse-click-burn
http://www.uccs.edu/~energy/courses/ENSC150/150lectures/testlecture.html
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