C. That's the Roman Numeral for 100 -

100 posts later and I am questioning, now more than ever, the validity of internet technology in our lives my life.

To begin with, and the foundation for my doubts regarding the internet, are the different types of social media.

Social media has its boons, of course. Some of these boons include being able to connect with those who you are not otherwise easily able to keep in touch with as well as becoming more in tune with social justice issues, (though self-proclaimed activists can be more pretentious than they are good samaritans.)

Social media can be overbearing.

From xanga to sconex, myspace to blogspot, livejournal to twitter, and Facebook ticker to Facebook’s timeline, the historical stenography of our lives has become a digitized version of something that is just short of ourselves.

That lengthy statement serves to reflect just how overbearing I feel social media to be. It is as if the relevancy of a person is determined by the number of “likes” one garners for a very meaningful experience they had and wanted to share.

This urge to share bothers me so very much.
To share what one ate today - oh, you would not believe!
Here, let me snap a picture before listening to my body’s desire to consume said food.

The need to share is not necessarily a desire for validation. Instead, we want to share with others our positive experiences.
It is an endearing and yet subtle definition for the verb, “to rejoice.”
The idea of rejoicing is a human sentiment, and the method of rejoicing, sharing via the internet platform, is non-human.

So we’re at this bittersweet juncture of the human and non-human.

We’re out there, on the internet I mean.

We can be Google-d and as a recent graduate who is ambitious for opportunity and an emerging journalist who is in need of contact information, search engines are a God-send.

Although, there are times when one feels as though their privacy is infringed upon. The most miniscule and seemingly trivial details about one’s life emerges: “So-and-so attended such-and-such event at this time and on this day.”

Then there was the, almost 10-minute long YouTube video, that I did manage to watch until the end.
The video was of 2 friends, roommates actually, who are both socially active and quite popular on tumblr, not that I follow them.
They do have a following that mostly consists of a demographic which can relate to their commentaries on the goings on of their Afghan-American community.
I honestly do not even remember how I came upon their video, but their groupies were praising it’s glory and I was curious enough to load the video.

Curiosity gave way to piqued interest which eventually gave way to appreciation.

The video’s topics were courtship and marriage. The core of the discussion was an incident that had occurred in a restaurant where a mutual friend of the 2 bros in the video took a liking to the waitress.

Both friends in the video had agreed that out of respect for the waitress and her professional work environment, their friend should not pursue the waitress. That is to say, he shouldn’t expect for an exchange of phone numbers to take place.

One of the friends, and I’m paraphrasing here, said that instead of exchanging written notes with phone numbers, he should maybe ask for her name and then Facebook friend her. The relationship can flourish, or not, from there. According to him, that is not creepy, that is efficiency.

His friend in the video was shaking his head the entire time and finally verbalized his opposition in the form of a question: Do you really want tell your kids that you wooed their mom with a Facebook request?

‘Love at first pixelated image’, seemed a little silly to me too.

In the February 2013 issue of Marie Claire magazine, actress Allison Williams, from the series Girls on HBO, wrote a letter to Twitter, part of which reads:

“Dear Twitter,
I have received numerous invitations to join you in a relationship, and I figured it was time to respond to your advances.
First, let me say: it’s not you, it’s me.
I’m also a little self-conscious around you. OK — I’m very self-conscious around you. You’re kind of a tough critic.The thought that you would misread a joke makes me ill.
Being with you would ruin any chance at being present in the moment — I’m distracted enough as it is.”

I want to tell all users of social media that being “present in the moment” does  not make you a specimen that is being harbored under a rock.

At times I think I too have become conditioned to text instead of call.

But in all honesty, I know that I’m not that person.
I don’t tweet, or even have an account, nor do I instagram and therefore, I still have no idea what filters are.

I enjoy meeting in person. I like walking around, observing something other than a screen that I’m sure will contribute to my going blind or developing cataracts at some point in time.

100 posts later and I have my doubts about this world wide web.
I bet you haven’t heard “world wide web” in a long time. Those were the golden days of America Online.

100 posts later and I have this platform to write, or type rather, about the basics and human behavior that transcends the fiscal privileges that some of us may have.

Sometimes I feel like I’m reading an anthropology journal when I read my earlier posts.

That’s what I was getting at though.

Here’s to keep on keeping on until Post CC - that’s the roman numeral for 200.