the times, they are a-changin

so i just watched as ashton kutcher became the first twitterer/tweeter/twatter (whatever) with over one million viewers in his race against larry king and CNN. not only did i watch on twitter, but ashton had a live stream set up in his house with his wife and his whole crew there watching the contest happen. what kind of a world do we live in these days that i can watch a celebrity live in their own home as they compete on an essentially pointless form of social media to become more popular? its sort of sick right? some kind of voyeuristic celebrity obsessed culture born in from the clusterfuck of the tabloid media, youtube, perez hilton, and instant gratification. alas, this diatribe against our current state of pop culture affairs is essentially a hypocritical rant of a social media savant living in the capitol of the entertainment world. why hypocritical you wonder? i attempted to be ashtons 1 millionth follower.

in this technological age it seems as though the more we advance the more we digress. house phones are obsolete, no one makes calls on cell phones, emailing is seldom done on computers, and who watches tv on a television? its like saying you boil water in the fridge or make toast in the sink. it makes no sense yet im sure if some scientific mumbo jumbo hibbity dibbity figured out a way to make a perfectly golden brown piece of sourdough or a crunchy slice of rye using your faucet and a sponge people would be on that like white on rice. i know i would lest i get left behind in the rapidly changing digital landscape. (ok so toast in a sink isnt digital but you get the point).

the whole reason that i have been twittering my little heart out is that i had my friend safia change my facebook password until i get all my papers turned in next week or else i would be wasting hours looking at pictures of the latest party that i wasnt at, or even that i was at because there is no greater thrill than reliving your alcohol blurred memories than on a public forum. instead of wasting time on facebook i have been using email, checking fmylife like three times a day, twitter at least twice an hour, and checking blogs of all friends and acquaintances. i even broke down one time and hacked into someones account whose password i know, just to see that friendly navy blue banner and the tabs welcoming me to my home page, profile, friends, or inbox. i had been off facebook for like three days. i may need a twelve step program before the week is out.

blogging is another thing too. it is a forum for attention whores everywhere to get things off their chest and validate themselves in some way. someone out there is bound to agree with them, they just dont know it yet. i know thats how i feel. i love me some attention in any form i can get it. when i see that someone has left a comment i get a little thrill in the pit of my stomach. who is it? what did they say? did they think i was funny? i hope they thought i was funny. thats pretty much exactly how i thinnk and im not apologizing for it, just putting it out into the world, hoping someone else thinks that way too.

i guess i feel like we are losing something when we use social media so much. i know i miss face to face interactions, a phone call, a good conversation instead of a conversation limited to a wall post, a 160 character text or tweet, a comment on a blog. does this mean i am going to stop using all the new fangled ways of communicating? not at all, i just might make more of an effort to be more personal. at the risk of sounding like a loser, in the past 10 days i have received or dialed two calls that were not my family or work. that is 2 social calls. however in the last 4 days i have received over 200 text messages. its a strange way of keeping in touch but i guess it works.

sorry this was a departure from my normal self deprecating, judgemental, petty posts which i love so much. i promise to return to those very soon.

you are the weakest link. goodbye.