#fedupwithhashtags

Before I get up on my soapbox, I will note here that I've been told before that I have an old soul. That fact is increasingly apparent. While I'm still a 30-something, I sometimes feel like a dinosaur. "Back in the ole days...", I remember when cell phones came in a rather large bag of their own or had an antennae so large you had to unscrew it in order to fit it in a large purse. I could giggle as I'm writing these very words. No, we did not have cell phones as teenagers-not most of us anyways. While I was guilty of hogging our home phone for hours to chat with an admirer or giggling with a friend--I still didn't have a phone attached to my person at all times. I might be outside and busy. We could drive to a store or restaurant and be unavailable until we returned home and checked for any messages. That's a common example of how we got on with life. We weren't always reachable and that was acceptable. I don't enjoy the expectation that we should have a phone on our hip 24/7. Sometimes I enjoy just living life and not checking for missed calls and voicemails. I was also one of the late bloomers when it came to texting. I hate all that clicking. I don't mind a convenient question here or there (or a lovely photo), but I despise having to type an entire conversation. It seems like you have to text and "check-in" to make sure that it is a convenient time to place a phone call. While most people have a phone within 2 feet of them at all times we don't want to use it to talk anymore.

 

The hard thing for a detail-oriented individual like myself is...words of a text or e-mail lack emotion. Without hearing the tone of a person's voice, some things can sound sarcastic or just different from how they were intended. We miss a true connection. Of course FaceTime and Skype are options, but most people I know rarely use them. Maybe we meant to, but we'd have to first schedule it or send a text to make sure it's okay.

I try to keep up. I did the Myspace thing until everyone left and went to Facebook. I was like, "It took me hours to set all that up and now I've gotta do a whole new site, username, and password?!! Am I gonna have to check-in to multiple sites like this now?!!" But alas, I followed the crowd. I do enjoy connecting with friends as far away as Alaska, seeing a photo of a cousin I wouldn't normally see, and laughing at silly e-cards and cartoons. I am a social gal and I like to be in the know. Which is also why I long ago caved in after at least 2 years of refusing to text. I don't enjoy it as much as actually talking, but it's that or nothing most days. I do crave making the connections although I find it increasingly difficult. As I became a Mom, so did a lot of other people I know. We all protect our family time with a wall of unavailability. I am guilty of neglecting return calls, but not out of spite. I seem to lack the discipline of time management and remembering what time is best for others. It feels so less invasive to send a Facebook message or text-that this is the proper etiquette now.

Now it's also become a thing to use hashtags, which by the way was created for use on Twitter. They serve no real purpose on Facebook (in my opinion) other than a way to look trendy and use more internet slang. I noticed this past week about 5 people used #TBT in a status update. By the 5th time I was so annoyingly curious about what it meant that I googled it on my handy dandy smartphone-which of course was in my pocket at all times in the event of such a need. Apparently it can be used to mean ThrowBack Thursday along with some old photo, or less commonly can mean "Truth Be Told". Okay, well that's fun. I admit it. But why are we too lazy to use the whole phrase? Are we so busy that we can't type 3 words? LOL, ROFL, DD, DS...why don't I just type random letters and see if you can read my mind? HTAA! It's so silly there was a skit about what we would sound like if we talked like this in person. ((WARNING: includes an edited profanity at the end))

 

While I probably sound like Andy Rooney (google it) to some of you right about now, I will say that I recognize the importance in joining the crowd to some extent. It's keep up or be left behind and I certainly don't want that. I don't miss the days of looking up things in our red encyclopedia set. I use my smartphone and love it. I Facebook and enjoy it. I text these days. If you want to see pictures or know about a person it is your responsibility to be the one to make the effort. So instead of waiting around I plug in, log-in, and so on. I just wonder if all our smart technology has hurt us in other ways. I've lost touch with some friends altogether because they were worried they might wake the baby if they tried to call. Eventually, we just lost touch. I moved out of state and lack a friend that I can drive and go see. Most of my immediate family is in another time zone. So, communication is more important than ever.

Here's an revolutionary idea: scroll to one of your contacts and dial the number. Hear a person's voice. Re-connect. Hear their laughter or share their tears because you can't get typically get that on their Facebook page. Drive to see a loved one and share a cup of tea. You might make their day and yours. Also, you might refine a really important relationship.