BEDA Entry 20: All or Nothing
I have started this entry multiple times today. I started to write it about my uncle as it's been three years today since he's passed on. Then I decided to write about other personal things that happened today, but I've decided against that too. Not because they are unimportant, but frankly, this blog is not a personal diary. It doesn't need to be all about those kinds of things. It really doesn't even need to be all about me.
Since the start of this project, I've been in awe of the different styles of blogs I've come across. With each unique blog and vlog, I have read such interesting information and heard some wonderful stories. It seems like readers and viewers (including myself) are most interested in blogs they can relate to. Whether the writer includes the reader or the vlogger asks for feedback, it seems that mutual communication could really be the key to good blogging. The attempt to learn, laugh, comfort, give constructive criticism, and come to understand others like and unlike ourselves seems to be the point. At any rate, I have read few blogs that seem to do otherwise.
Two things happened today that kind of disturbed me. First, a few well-known vloggers announced their plans to spend less time online. One went so far as to deleting and removing everything that was seen as a distraction. This ended up being quite a bit of things and people. While I understand the idea of removing things in our lives that are unhelpful, this really seemed way too far to me. I couldn't wrap my mind around the concept of shutting so many things out of my life because I deemed them distracting. I mean, pretty much anything and anyone can be seen as a distraction if you are weighing your relationship with the thing or person exclusively on the time you spend on them. I'll admit, though, I unfollowed some people on twitter today and have been spending less time updating and reading twitter. This doesn't mean that I'm going to delete Twitter altogether because all I do is spend time on it that I could be using learning another language or reading books. It just means that I prefer to direct my attention to the people who also pay attention to me or who genuinely inspire me. This reminds me, Alan or "Fallofautumndistro" published a letter he wrote to the vlogger I was just discussing. I agree completely with Alan's letter. Go read it. He makes wonderful points about "wasting time" online.
In addition to that, I was on Facebook today. As always, I was bombarded with status updates. This happens every day, but I was rather appalled and annoyed by a few I came across. An old friend I rarely speak to was arguing with someone about their controversial status update. The conversations on that status update became so heated that someone remarked that they would delete the owner of the status update for associating with people that had such "disgusting" opinions. I didn't go so far as to see if the person fell through with this decision or not, but I don't understand how college-educated people get off acting like their opinion is the be all and end all. It's great to have your own opinion that you don't plan to budge on, but how does deleting people and being rude change minds? It doesn't. It seems some "Christians" behave this way all the time instead of just listening to people and trying to relate. It's no wonder the word "Christian" is often synonymous to "close-minded."
Anyway, this rant is not to put those people down, because I myself claim to be Christian. In fact, I agreed with the opinion of the person who I am criticizing. In addition, I'm not putting down those who decide to delete distractions in their lives. Instead, I would just like to see people listening to each other. I would like to see people bouncing ideas off of each other. I'd like to see people talking about "hot topics" and being able to listen to differing opinions. I'd like to see people trying to relate to and understand each other. After all, Aristotle viewed the median as the best course in life. I'm not saying one should ride fences, but to paraphrase Alan, not everything is "all or nothing."
Since the start of this project, I've been in awe of the different styles of blogs I've come across. With each unique blog and vlog, I have read such interesting information and heard some wonderful stories. It seems like readers and viewers (including myself) are most interested in blogs they can relate to. Whether the writer includes the reader or the vlogger asks for feedback, it seems that mutual communication could really be the key to good blogging. The attempt to learn, laugh, comfort, give constructive criticism, and come to understand others like and unlike ourselves seems to be the point. At any rate, I have read few blogs that seem to do otherwise.
Two things happened today that kind of disturbed me. First, a few well-known vloggers announced their plans to spend less time online. One went so far as to deleting and removing everything that was seen as a distraction. This ended up being quite a bit of things and people. While I understand the idea of removing things in our lives that are unhelpful, this really seemed way too far to me. I couldn't wrap my mind around the concept of shutting so many things out of my life because I deemed them distracting. I mean, pretty much anything and anyone can be seen as a distraction if you are weighing your relationship with the thing or person exclusively on the time you spend on them. I'll admit, though, I unfollowed some people on twitter today and have been spending less time updating and reading twitter. This doesn't mean that I'm going to delete Twitter altogether because all I do is spend time on it that I could be using learning another language or reading books. It just means that I prefer to direct my attention to the people who also pay attention to me or who genuinely inspire me. This reminds me, Alan or "Fallofautumndistro" published a letter he wrote to the vlogger I was just discussing. I agree completely with Alan's letter. Go read it. He makes wonderful points about "wasting time" online.
In addition to that, I was on Facebook today. As always, I was bombarded with status updates. This happens every day, but I was rather appalled and annoyed by a few I came across. An old friend I rarely speak to was arguing with someone about their controversial status update. The conversations on that status update became so heated that someone remarked that they would delete the owner of the status update for associating with people that had such "disgusting" opinions. I didn't go so far as to see if the person fell through with this decision or not, but I don't understand how college-educated people get off acting like their opinion is the be all and end all. It's great to have your own opinion that you don't plan to budge on, but how does deleting people and being rude change minds? It doesn't. It seems some "Christians" behave this way all the time instead of just listening to people and trying to relate. It's no wonder the word "Christian" is often synonymous to "close-minded."
Anyway, this rant is not to put those people down, because I myself claim to be Christian. In fact, I agreed with the opinion of the person who I am criticizing. In addition, I'm not putting down those who decide to delete distractions in their lives. Instead, I would just like to see people listening to each other. I would like to see people bouncing ideas off of each other. I'd like to see people talking about "hot topics" and being able to listen to differing opinions. I'd like to see people trying to relate to and understand each other. After all, Aristotle viewed the median as the best course in life. I'm not saying one should ride fences, but to paraphrase Alan, not everything is "all or nothing."