ClydeStyle

Category: Social media

  • America struggles with its plurality of morals

    We are halfway through 2025, and as we slide into summer, there will be more daylight and  more opportunities to interact with others.

    This used to be considered a good thing because it would strengthen our community ties and further develop our societal  norms. As a country, we need this more now than any other time because we are completely divided in our morals and values.

    There are several factors in developing our morality. How you were raised by your parents, peer interaction, role models, and the media help to sync our morality.

    Years ago, parents disciplined their children. Spare the rod, spoil the child was the biblical saying that made discipline important. The standard in America was to work hard for what you want. We saw our parents do it and we took our turn as we became adults.

    I was fortunate to have 4 siblings at home, and I had an older brother who went to college, and I followed his steps. I may not have gone to college if he didn’t go.

    I grew up with role models or heroes that I tried to imitate. There was a clear difference between good and evil, and the majority of the kids wanted to be the good guys!

    Then, of course, there is the media and social media where you can see and hear literally anything. The media has helped to desensitize us and blur the lines between good and evil. When Luigi Magione was arrested for allegedly shooting an insurance agency CEO in the back on a New York City Street, he was praised by many and seen as a hero. Forty years ago, there would have been gun protests, ridicule of his family, and no one in the 80s would have celebrated this shooter.

    So here is the point, in years past, people were just as selfish, greedy, corrupt, and immoral as they are today. But inside of us was a governor that would make us ashamed to be associated with such filth. Today, we can openly present opposing views to our societal norms, and it’s just OK.

    There is now a new definition of what it means to be free in America. We are now free to act a damn fool without shame, be racist, a pedophile, a junkie, or a drunk and my favorite — we can be as ignorant as we want to and that’s just fine.

    At this rate, the destruction of America is not an “if”, it’s “when.”

  • You are what you watch

    By the end of the 40s, America was embracing the latest technological advancement in the medium of television. It was a huge deal, especially  when it was made available for the “common man” and there was a TV in every house.

    Immediately, studies were conducted on the effects of watching too much TV and the results were astonishing: Watching too much TV will have negative effects on your physical and mental health, including obesity, sleep problems, and depression. It can also lead to a sedentary lifestyle and impaired social skills.

    But, according to current research, social media tends to have a more significant negative impact on mental health compared to simply watching TV; this is primarily due to the social comparison features, constant notifications, and potential for cyberbullying present on social media platforms, which can contribute to feelings of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem, especially among young people. 

    For example, it is very easy to have compassion for an isolated incident. You are driving down the road and there is a bad accident. Someone is thrown from a car as a result of the crash. A normal person will have compassion instantly. One may stop and try to help, another may pray, and still another my call 911.

    I wonder how many people will question whether the injured person was a criminal? Who would want to know whether the injured cheats on their partner?

    Where does the judgment come from? This is the social media effect because in the course of a day, you might witness a horrible crash once in 10 to 20 years. In a single day of watching reels and shorts on social media, you could potentially see more than 10. Moreover, you will see a ton of fights, a ton of disagreements, horrible decision-making, and other negative scenarios.

    These images overload your brain, and you lose the cognitive ability to be empathetic. You stop caring and move to a judgmental position where you play God and decide whether to care about or blame the participants.

    Remember the outrage on social media after the insurance CEO was gunned down in New York? Social media played a huge role in this because, like TV watching, we are corrupting our souls by the filth we constantly pour through our eyes.

    A.I. will be worse.

  • Shame on the media

    My first professional job when I graduated from Western Michigan University was an editor position with a bi-weekly newspaper in Dearborn, MI. I loved being a part of the media. I was dubbed “the next Bryant Gumball” in my undergraduate years. Journalism still had integrity and a sense of responsibility to the public.

    Ben Franklin and his brother coined the process years ago for media to be more of a watchdog and informer to the public and they were even arrested for telling the truth about government policies that were not helpful to the public.

    Back during the Vietnam War the media played a major role informing the public about what was really happening. They showed the horror of war, the coffins and casualties and exposed the lies from the government which led to mass protests and the eventually end to that foolishness.

    When the Watergate scandal happened the New York Times and the Washington Post among other outlets were like a hungry dog going after a bone to expose the lies and attempts to cover up wrongdoing.

    Walter Cronkite worked for CBS for 19 years and was named the most trusted man in America. Character, integrity, truthful, honest and compassionate were the adjectives to describe him. Today, we have lost sight of these words. Like all things with Capitalism someone decided to begin doing the news for profit and literally killed all credibility.

    What does the resource section of the library do when the non-fiction books become fiction in order to gain more readers? This is what has happened to our media system. Now, there is no filter and anything can be said at anytime without proof. Truth is now a perspective and the absolute part of it has been executed.

    America no longer wants truth. It wants an opinion that it agrees with and truth does not have to take part in it.

    The media has done the unthinkable: To go from being an informative advocate for the communities to bringing fears, opinions and falsehoods to mainstream for the purposes of engaging the emotions of the communities for profit.

    The media has become the greatest threat to American democracy.

  • Who really cares on social media?

    Social media has really done a thing on us. Because of how the system is set up and the fact that we use emojis, have “like” buttons and share random opinions, we somehow believe that people care.

    We make the mistake of sharing intimate information searching for acceptance and for the social media community to see things our way. We share our pain and sorrow, our fears and anxiety and we let the whole world know that we are hurting with the hope that atleast on person will give a damn! They don’t. No one does.

    We can use an emotional and divorce ourselves from it’s feelings in a New York minute. There are some who still get off on people saying happy birthday or anniversary while we forget that the system conveniently made that available — no one remembered.

    Is it possible to get an honest answer from someone on social media? Sure. As long as their identity can be hidden. We meet the core of our country on social media. To meet them just simply start a political or religious conversation and let the fun begin.

    What we need to do is first see social media for what it is: An unregulated, bias, greedy community designed to steal, kill and tear you down from the inside out. It robs you of your time, money and steals tou away from the things that matter the most in life. It is not a resource and it cares nothing about you. It needs to be seen as strictly entertainment for everybody at the expense of somebody.

    Enter in at your own risk, buy don’t bear your soul. Protect it and everything that matters to you and remember, social media is not the place for those who care. It’s simple an arena for taking advantage of people.