TikTok, the clock keeps moving
Thank God for TikTok.
We’re not back to normal yet, whatever that may be. And in all honesty, I’m not quite sure how normal it will all be when we are through with this emerge from this social distancing thing.
I mean, will we all rush out into the streets and celebrate when this is all over?
Will we all go back to work, business as usual?
What will our lives really be like? Will we carry facemasks in our back pocket? Will we have sellout crowds for the Super Bowl again? Will we jam Coachella for yet another round of geezer rock flashbacks?
What will our post-COVID-19 world look like?
As we moved to social distancing, we also moved more toward distant socializing, which is why the numbers are skyrocketing in the world of social media.
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and the others are experiencing the highest usage ever, with jumps of 50 percent or more across the board.
And, it’s not all because some people are working from home.
We’re keeping closer tabs on family and friends.
We’re seeking information from government websites.
We are hitting the medical forums like crazy.
Media sites, even those with a paywall, are booming with traffic.
Despite the pandemic, our need for human interaction has not lessened, even though our manner in fulfilling it has. We may not be able to shake hands, but there’s a lot of virtual hugging going on out there.
Back in the days of MySpace and the fledgling Facebook, many people thought social media sites were little more than a toy. They did not understand the potential power and reach of social media. The people who thought spending time to build and maintain a Facebook presence for their business was frivolous at best. And, Twitter? Nobody knew what the hell to do with Twitter for years.
But, now we do. We embrace Twitter, we embrace Facebook, we embrace WhatsApp, and we embrace all of the other social media. I’m not quite sure what more potential lies out there for Twitter or Facebook models, but I’m sure the money guys have ideas. And, more importantly, what lies beyond? What will the next Facebook be capable of doing? I mean I’d hate to live an eight-track life in an MP3 world.
Look, it is not within us as human beings to live a monastic life. We need some outreach to our fellow humans. Our circles may be small, but we need them nonetheless. It’s why this ordeal is so difficult. Hopefully, one of the many lessons to be learned from all of this is the dependency we have on each other, whether person-to-person or nation-to-nation and why the idea of separatism and nationalism are so in conflict with the human condition from cradle to grave. You can separate us all you want, whether by color, creed, age, or whatever kind of bias you may contrive, but we do not embark on our journey or exist in our own special reality alone. I need you, you need me. The United States needs Germany, Great Britain, Russia, and China and they need us. There is a pretty good chance that we are, in all likelihood, a temporary species and that somewhere along the way, will be eliminated by an overburdened planet that decides to heal itself by expelling all of its pollutants, which include us. We will have to work together to prolong that as long as possible. To do so means we have to reach out to one another.
I am old enough to remember how my mom would keep an egg timer by the telephone when she made a long-distance call to talk to her mother. My brother and I got to say “Hi, Granny,” and that was about it because long-distance calling was a luxury, at least for us. If the call extended beyond three minutes it was because of either a birth or death.
That’s why, I think, we Boomers have flocked to social media in such numbers. It is nice to have family and friends just a few keyboard taps away and that we can also do face-to-face visits on our computers, tablets, or telephones if we want to be even more intimate.
I mean, I can talk with my friend Gordie, who lives in Eastleigh, a town southwest of London, just as cheaply as I ring up my neighbor Kress, who lives next door.
The technology at our fingertips is amazing especially to those of us who, as kids, would prank call random numbers on big, rotary dial telephones.
We have heard some about the flu pandemic that lasted from 1918-1920 when 500 million people were infected and 50 million perished. I wonder how many lives would have been spared if they had access to information as we do today. We can only imagine how terrifying that had to be. Confined, struggling, with no informational flow.
So while it might not seem like it at the moment, we are fortunate.
Actually, we are fortunate on numerous levels. First, of course, we have this technology to fall back on. We can watch movies, read books, play games on our portable devices. We can look up information in an instant. We are on top of breaking news when it comes to world events no matter where we are and what we are doing.
But, most importantly, what I think these social media numbers reveal is that we haven’t completely lost our sense of humanity.
Oh, we have problems. Big ones.
But, we still have that need to reach out to one another and that’s the important thing.
It means that beyond all of the petty fighting and serious disagreements, we still care for each other. I am hoping that feeling will spur us all on to something greater when we come out of this; that we reprioritize our lives to look after each other better; that we don’t return to our old, bitter, greedy selves, look for the good in others, and create a little more within ourselves; that we advance humankind and not get stuck in this self-destruct mode we have gnashed gears over for so long.
There’s little relief in this enforced timeout.
People are dying.
People are running out of food.
People are running out of patience.
So, Tik Tok, the clock is moving.
Hopefully, we can keep up with it.
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