Growing Up. In 140 Characters or Less

This week in class we briefly looked at 'The Facebook Sonnet' by Sherman Alexie. It was published in The New Yorker, a magazine I enjoy reading because I feel incredibly well educated when I do so. Though the poem touched on, 'endless-high school reunion' and keeping in touch with exes, two things that despite having zero familiarity with, I could completely relate to Alexie's message. Essentially, the poem gave grave outlook on wasting one's entire life on Facebook. Though I deleted my Facebook (because, despite what my 13 year old self believed, I was not particularly attractive and there was no need to take 7-15 photos every time I went to the mall) I am not free of internet addictions. I have a major problem with Twitter, Instagram, and just about any time consuming activity on my phone. If you are able to see the time that this blog is posted it will likely be sometime around 1:30am on a Monday morning. That, is exhibit A; I procrastinated my day away and I now sit on my floor in pajamas surrounded by my schoolwork in a sea of self loathing. The tragedy that is my sleep schedule can be blamed almost completely on social networking, and also my admittedly small amount of will power. Twitter has totally eaten my life. I talk in acronyms and say 'literally' in places it does not belong, I get sad when I don't have retweets, and one of the best compliments I believe I can receive is being told my tweets are funny. What's even more disturbing is that I don't think I'm the only one. It looks to me as though much of our generation has been eaten by this oversharing-internet-monster turning us into little drones clutching our iPhones, Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and indecisiveness. I have absolutely no ideas for a cure, but many worries for the future of our nation. How can anyone run for president when your opposing candidate can pull up ranting tweets from when you were 15? If you've ever hashtagged '#turndownforwhat' I suggest you abandon any dreams of running for office. One day there will be surgeons who put off doing their med school homework to play Candy Crush. But, has there ever been a new generation that has not been feared for, and then dubbed 'a generation of idiots'? Maybe we'll all be just fine, we'll outgrow adolescence and also idiocy just like our parents did; and if some of us don't? Well, they can tweet us all about it.