Middle Child POV: Misery Loves Company
Paul Randall Adams
Issue date: 3/10/10 Section: Opinions
Twitter and Facebook are truly amazing things.
They give us instant knowledge of a person's goings-on.
Modern technology has allowed us to have our friends' statuses and tweets sent to our cell phones, so we are instantly informed.
We need to be in constant communication. We need to constantly know what they're doing.
But more often than not, it seems, statuses and tweets are being used more to let the world know of the terrible day that a person has had.
People get home from class and immediately go to their computers.
After a few keystrokes and the click of a mouse, the cell phones of all of their friends are buzzing with a new status such as "My life is over! I failed my Psych test" or the ever-so vague "Well, there goes that."
Vaguebooking is a new movement, and is defined as the intentional posting of a vague status to prompt friends into asking what's wrong.
Why do we do this?
All of us have done it at some point.
Do we want others to be miserable with us?
Or do we perhaps have a deep, desperate desire for attention in the worst of ways.
We want the world to feel miserable with us. And we want everybody to tell us that things will get better.
But seriously, how badly can our lives be going?
There are thousands in America with no homes.
There are hundreds who don't have electricity at night and who wonder when their next meal will be.
There are children in the hospital, suffering from terminal illnesses. And the parents of those children.
As the saying goes, misery needs company.
But what truly qualifies as misery? Is a failed test reason enough to bring everybody around you down?
Be rational.
There are people in Haiti who don't have a home.
There are children who have lost their parents and parents who lost their children.
A devastating earthquake took the homes and lives of an entire people.
They lost it all: their families, their jobs, their homes. Everything. They are living in tents.
They give us instant knowledge of a person's goings-on.
Modern technology has allowed us to have our friends' statuses and tweets sent to our cell phones, so we are instantly informed.
We need to be in constant communication. We need to constantly know what they're doing.
But more often than not, it seems, statuses and tweets are being used more to let the world know of the terrible day that a person has had.
People get home from class and immediately go to their computers.
After a few keystrokes and the click of a mouse, the cell phones of all of their friends are buzzing with a new status such as "My life is over! I failed my Psych test" or the ever-so vague "Well, there goes that."
Vaguebooking is a new movement, and is defined as the intentional posting of a vague status to prompt friends into asking what's wrong.
Why do we do this?
All of us have done it at some point.
Do we want others to be miserable with us?
Or do we perhaps have a deep, desperate desire for attention in the worst of ways.
We want the world to feel miserable with us. And we want everybody to tell us that things will get better.
But seriously, how badly can our lives be going?
There are thousands in America with no homes.
There are hundreds who don't have electricity at night and who wonder when their next meal will be.
There are children in the hospital, suffering from terminal illnesses. And the parents of those children.
As the saying goes, misery needs company.
But what truly qualifies as misery? Is a failed test reason enough to bring everybody around you down?
Be rational.
There are people in Haiti who don't have a home.
There are children who have lost their parents and parents who lost their children.
A devastating earthquake took the homes and lives of an entire people.
They lost it all: their families, their jobs, their homes. Everything. They are living in tents.
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