Listen

“Be quick to listen and slow to speak”
Listen is a modest act that has been underestimated especially in the society operating in this present day. Take Facebook for example. Isn’t Facebook’s mission to act as a social networking platform for people to reconnect? Undoubtedly it serves it’s purpose but what has been the main activity going on Facebook?

It has become a site to spread viral information and memes. Information is spread in a split of a second. Recently, a friend of mine found a camera belonging to a French family. In hoping to return the camera to its rightful owner, he extracted a picture from the camera and made a share-post. In a day or two, the owner saw the announcement through his news feed and contacted my friend.

But most of all, what have we become? We, as Facebook users, have became slaves to this seemingly innocuous interface. Students are seen announcing their exodus from this “Jerusalem” a week before Exam as if dead week is like an opportunity for a sabbatical. The degree of attachment we have developed is a manifested consequence of what Facebook did for us. Ever heard people saying “Can you hear me? I am shouting out for attention!” Well, we might as well just say that out loud with the way we have pimped out ourselves. A few years ago, I read an article called ” Are you a Facebook narcissist?” Facebook has been reinforcing  the narcissistic side of us by allowing us to just share our thoughts out there and making us believe that our friends are actually hearing what we say. In real life, we expect people to listen and their body languages tell us if they are actually listen. But in social sites, a simple click on the “Like” button somehow does the trick. People no longer expect us to listen and a short comment and like from us will just do. As we add friends, we obey the law of social convention and send a “poke.” But soon, as we grow comfortable, we begin to forget that social convention requires us to perform a series of protocol to ensure that the benefits we reaped such as popularity or support continue. So what is left are just unlimited supply of thoughts.

Writing all these posts makes me realize that refinement is no longer my motivation and I have become crude in my thinking and writing. Help me.

Sincerely,
Noah