v42.5: "Socially" Acceptable

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out." - John Wooden

There's nothing like a good storm to get the inspirational juices flowing.  Especially when the power goes out and you lose access to all of the "life distractions" that seem to inhibit inspiration.  On Tuesday this week we had an impressive thunder and lightning show here in Halifax which lasted for a good 8 hours in total.  I have never seen or experienced anything like it before.  There were times during the storm where I was sure my apartment building was going to cave in on me because the thunder was so loud.  I lost power at my place a couple of times, but it only lasted for a minute.  It got me thinking though: how would society cope if our access to data, news and social media was abruptly cut off?

You see it everywhere you look these days.  Smart phones, tablets and laptops are a common scene in our daily society.  News and information is readily accessible wherever you go and social networking is on the rise.  I have been using Twitter since it came out and I recently started using Google+.  I'm amazed at what people like to post sometimes.  I constantly see things like: "I'm on the bus, heading to work" and "Sitting at home, watching TV".  While it may be entertaining, there comes a point when you just need to keep certain things to yourself.  There are some "famous" people who have climbed on the social media wagon and are bad for this.  These people have literally thousands and thousands of followers who read everything they write.  In most cases, their followers will often comment which can lead to a simple post about "Going to bed for the night" into a frenzy of "good night"s and "sleep well"s flooding the stream.  What is the point of telling your fan base you're going to bed?  What ever did we do before we knew what time 'famous" people went to bed?

We (yes I'm including myself in this) are addicted to social media.  We are "net junkies" who constantly hit multiple sites all day long to get the latest updates on things and to see what our "followed" are up to.  I'm just as much to blame for this as anyone especially since I live alone and spend my evenings on my laptop reading streams and commenting.  Hell, I even have a blog where I write about completely useless topics and drink coffee.  Of course I wouldn't consider myself famous, but I do have a small following and my posts are being published on most of the social media streams out there today.  My site will even allow people to share my blog posts to various social media sites if they like what I have to say and want to share it with their followers, so feel free to share.

Now that I've written all this, let's go back to my original thought: how would society cope if all of a sudden our access to data, news and social media was abruptly cut off?  I'd be interested to hear your comments or thoughts on this.