Everything I (don't) need to know I have learned by visiting several social media sites. They shall remain unidentified because I don't want to be sued, or worse, put in social media 'jail.' It's really embarrassing when you're a senior citizen.
Anyway, if you have five minutes, an attention span longer than mine, nothing better to do, and have spent any time at all on one particular social media site, you can find out that people love to overshare. By reading all the wildly differing opinions you too, can walk away with a deep insight into such diverse topics as:
(A) How to diagnose severe diseases in people you will never come in contact with who seem to feel the need to display their conditions, such as a limb hanging by a thread, for all the world to see. "Do you think I need to see a doctor?" the caption will read. A lengthy description of how this condition came about and graphic photos or videos to enhance the experience are usually included.
(B) Where are the safest and cheapest places to eat? It has to be one or the other since you can't have it both ways.
(C) Parents seeking childcare from strangers. This one seriously baffles me.
(D) Where are they now? This includes formerly famous people we thought we cared about, wished we could marry, or at least meet, etc., but can't remember their names anymore. OR
(E) Why certain types of people seem to be drawn to big box stores.
Today we'll touch on just a few examples.
Need advice about the lump you found this morning? Or that gaping, oozing wound? Graphic pictures will be included. Social media sites are filled with pseudo-medical experts who are more than willing to give you advice. Some may be able to help without making things worse such as you ending up dead. Why spend thousands of your hard-earned dollars on a socalled expert just because he or she happened to have misspent their youth going to medical school, passing tests and earning an M.D. to put after their name so they can charge $100 every time they can get us to say AHHH. Meanwhile, the rest of us were busy spending our youth as God intended – by dragging Main Street and dancing at the teen hop in a manner that caused most adults to fear we were afflicted with a frightening condition that causes jerky movements.
Don't waste your money going to just any old restaurant, cafe, or greasy spoon without consulting one of the thousands of connoisseurs on social media who have gone ahead of you and are more than willing to share their experience–good or bad–with anyone who reads it. Although the reviews tend to be mostly bad, that doesn't matter. We must appreciate the sacrifice they made by eating out night after night at hundreds of food establishments just so they can let us know places we should avoid. The fact that a dozen different patrons will have a dozen different reviews and there's no way we can know who to trust and who has all the pickiness of a vulture is irrelevant.
Childcare! Is this really where you want to find someone to watch your little darlings while you're at work? Every day someone will post a request for a babysitter. The only advice I can think of here is to please shell out the dough for a daycare facility where the employees have been thoroughly vetted by the government so you know they can be trusted. The government wouldn't lie to us, would they?
Where are all the famous people we swore we'd love forever if we ever got to meet them which ended when we found out they were old enough to be our parent? Some ended up in rehab and/or on television shows where they were made to talk about their journey to sobriety. From there many went on to appear on such shows as Celebrity Rehab, Celebrity Apprentice, or Dancing with the Stars, which should really be called Dancing with People we may be vaguely familiar with but we're not sure since we haven't seen them (a) in years, (b) after they got sober, or (c) can't recognize them from their mugshots.
You can find a plethora of pictures of people who are drawn to the big box store like dieters to an all-you-can-eat buffet. It makes me appreciate my own family and friends and I don't have to attend a state fair. The only reason I would attend is to eat all the bad-for-you fried foods. Social media is a great
Social media is a great way to learn things you didn't need to know and see things you definitely don't want to see.