Mia Taylor

It is amazing how dependent we have become on knowing where people are and what they’re doing at all times.

I’m going to step aside from the majority here and explain why I believe this to be true.

To my knowledge Facebook seems to have kicked-off this obsession and Myspace soon followed right behind. Now, communities like Twitter and Hi5, fall under the same spell and more than ever people are becoming obsessed with broadcasting their personal lives.

What has happened to a society that valued their personal lives?

Someone recently sent me a link to a video on YouTube that I believe couldn’t better portray the idea that often times “Status Updates” are taken a little too far.

Mia is “waking up.” Mia is “brushing her teeth.” Mia is “talking on the phone with her boyfriend.” Mia is “Putting her laundry out for everyone to see.” Now, I understand the benefit of broadcasting to co-workers on Twitter or Facebook that you’re going to be late for a meeting, or even updating your status that you might be going out of town, but some of the updates seem unnecessarily forward. People now broadcast who they think you should vote for, that they are mad/sad/suicidal and even that they are intoxicated.

Don’t get me wrong, I have deffinitely had my days of status-update obessions, but those days are gone and now I can look critically at what it does for your life. What do you get from broadcasting your every move?

About four or five months ago I was waiting for an appointment and picked up a newspaper from the seat next to me. As I opened the newspaper I noticed a service called Loopt that “transforms your mobile phone into a social compass.” I was apalled. Now, you can track where your friends are located via a mobile map on your cellphone. With the Loopt service, you must be a registerred member of Loopt in order to broadcast your geographical location, however, even when you’re not logged on to the site, your position is still being broadcasted.

We have placed such emphasis on connecting with people that in reality, people seem to be less connected. When I was a Facebook status-update addict, I found that people were less inclined to call and see what I was up to during the weekend because they already knew. I found that people would see all my “geo-tagged” and “friend-tagged” photos and instead of making direct contact to talk about their weekend, they would leave comments on my profile instead. Call me old fashioned, but I believe that commenting on walls, photo comments and status updates aren’t as personal as directly connecting via phone or even text messaging.

From here, as technology improves, it is my belief that people will only become less connected with others on a personal level, no matter how personal our status updates are.

According to Wikipedia, Global Warming is the increase in average temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans. And while I have noticed that summers do seem hotter and glaciers continue to thaw rapidly, I am not informed enough about the situation to lay claim to “weather” (lol) or not this is really happening. As Bob Ostertag noted in his article in The Huffington Post, many people believe this to be just another “money-making scheme.” I took it upon myself to make sure that any opinion I made on the topic was an informed one.

I recently finished watching Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and was disappointed that more of the film revolved around Gore’s accomplishments in life and less about how humans have gone about destroying the atmosphere. Or better yet, how we can repair the damage that has been done.

Here’s a little bit of what I learned about Global Warming. Carbon Dioxide, and other such natural gases are naturally released into the atmosphere which in turn trap the sun’s heat within the Earth’s atmosphere. This process helps make the Earth habitable, however, it is said that when we burn gas, coal and oil, the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere keeps heat from leaving the atmosphere and thus making temperatures rise. Wikipedia notes that “Global temperatures on both land and sea have increased by 1.35 °F relative to the period 1860- “1900.”

The media, the internet and political campaigns cloud our filtration system when it comes to filtering out misinformation. The internet makes it so easy to find the wrong information, while the right information sits quietly, unnoticed, deep beneath the surface. As a student, educated American, or simply a curious mind, it often frustrates me that conspiracy theories and personal opinions are given more attention.

If you’re interested in some ways to cut the amount of Carbon Dioxide that is released, here is a list of Fifty things you can change. Whether or not these are viable is for you to decide. I know that I am more aware of how much I drive, the lights I leave on when I leave a room (although my boyfriend reminds me about the bathroom light!), and do my best to recycle whenever possible. These will not only save you money, but it might directly affect the globe.

My opinion? Thanks for asking! I’ve decided that what I believe is what I see. The price of fuel is outrageous; down the street from my home Chevron charges $4.89 for 89 Octane fuel. I also believe that with the growth of population, natural resources will become scarce far quicker than we are prepared for. I believe that these things need to be addressed and that the government should be making it easier to “be green.” I believe it is our responsibility to become informed and formulate educated opinions based on what the facts show us. Although finding the facts can usually be the hardest part.