Things are trending – This is a VERY bad trend if you ask me.

This stems from my own observations of the world around me and some of the things I read. So a little background first. If something is trending on twitter, it means a lot of people are using that hashtag (#) and talking about it. That could mean people are talking about your account and what you are hash tagging. By definition, an internet trend is a topic, event, picture, video, catch-phrase, app, etc. that is being widely used or discussed and mentioned over social media. NOW most news and social media sites now have ‘trending’ sections where viewers can see the most popular articles and tweets available to read. The hashtag has also become a widely recognized tool on Twitter and now facebook that is used to briefly identify the central topic of a message.

So, what could be wrong with that – what is Smitty going on about now you might be asking? Well let’s take a moment to ponder about social media in general, Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in for the main stream and maybe Pintrest, My Life and meet-up for some of the smaller ones, or Tumblr and the myriad others that are available. It has been my experience that most folks LIE their asses off on social media. I know, and am FB friends with people who are obnoxious asses who are nowhere close to religious but when you spend a few minutes on their page one would think they were literally the second coming of Christ. Most people on social media, with Linked-in leading the way, are image crafting. Folks are attempting to put their best foot forward to make folks believe something that is an exaggeration.

That is all well and good but being able to put ones best foot forward on the interwebs is NOT the same as actually putting ones best foot forward. Social media seems to create a reality where folks could say what they are doing, for all intents and purpose their life is apparently very out in the open. It is a reality where most folks present a greatly exaggerated and near perfect version of their own existence. They kiss babies, believe in Jesus Christ as their savoir and they never swear, are good parents and are always nice to those less fortunate. They are compassionate and empathetic to those who are or have suffered. When folks chime in, their careers and relationships are at their best, folks who are struggling tend not to be as vocal or broadcast their circumstances.

So the perceived reality becomes magnificently skewed from reality. Folks tend to think, wow Mr. Oatmeal has his shit together, sunrises and sunsets and loving on the Bride. In my case I post and share my life as it is, the good the bad and the ugly – you have read me when I was at high points and you read me when I was at very low places. Most folks are not Mr. Oatmeal though, hence the need for me to attempt to demonstrate an absurdity that I have noticed. People who are engaged users of social media could easily fall into the trap that everyone is doing really well. This is a dangerous slope to be on for many reasons but one important one revolves around a person’s self-worth.

Imagine if you will for a moment, someone who grew up with social media, when they see all the lies and mistruths posted on their friends and celebrities feeds, it would be easy to feel a bit of misery. Why isn’t my life going as well as all my friends? Why do they seem to get all the breaks? What a great relationship they have, why can’t I have that? We are in a sense creating a false reality that is self-fulfilling and self-perpetuating. Folks, probably mostly younger folks rather than older, are sucked into bizarro world. An alternative reality is really what it ends up being. I am unsure what this is doing to the psyche of folks, especially the younger folks. I could easily see where a person could be unhappy. At least, they could be feeling a bit frustrated and inadequate.

It seems mostly straightforward to me, if the reality of someone's life is better than they had expected, they're happy. When reality turns out to be worse than the expectations, by comparison to someone else’s posts, they're not as happy. So what does that mean in the context of this blog. My point is that social media is an alternative reality that we created, not unlike Nero created in the First of the new Star Trek Movies. “Nero's very presence has altered the flow of history, beginning with the attack on the USS Kelvin, culminating in the events of today, thereby creating an entire new chain of incidents that cannot be anticipated by either party." An entire new chain of incidents that cannot be anticipated by either party huh? Hummmmm. That seems to me what social media does, only in a false or at a minimum very deceiving way. We do not place our hurts and our pain on facebook or twitter, we just don’t.

So how then can we trust something that is “trending” when that trend is formulated by data mining the shit out of the information we share – especially since that is an incomplete and flawed data set from the beginning. What does it mean that “Is it possible to build a snowboard underwater?” In just this moment I Googled what was trending on twitter, and that was at the top of the list. What possible relation to my life can that information have? Trending, I think we are sucked into areas we don’t belong and I would not be surprised if those are skewed on purpose to divert our attention from more important news bits that would have some relevance in my life. So, I say to you my friends, be wary of news groups or others offering you “what is trending” it could be bullshit, like most of what we read in social media!