I had grown up, an angst-filled teen of the 90's, listening to Anderson's classics "Language is a Virus" and "O Superman." You wouldn't recognize her, I'm sure (you're likely too young to know who I'm talking about, hipster). A performance artist, composer and violinist who was married to the now late, Lou Reed, Anderson hung in the camp of Brian Eno, David Bowie, Devo, Kate Bush and other eclectic, ambient musicians. Often a commentary on the overabundance of industrialized growth and the irony of "success" and society, her music had a message that fed my 20-something brain; her songs often dissects societal norms while interjecting small tokens of sarcastic humor.
In a gripping performance in 2005, she brought tears to my eyes during the encore when she performed the 1995 classic "Same Time Tomorrow." If you care to listen/watch it, click here.
I often think of the lyrics to that song now, 10 years later. It is amusing when she refers to a VCR in the beginning of the song - clearly dated. But in an eerie, thought-provoking recording, the trill of a morning dove is played repeatedly along with the beep, beep, beep of what is ostensibly a VCR or an alarm clock. And the lyrics poignantly ask tough questions, most notably,
What I really want to know is
are things getting better or are they getting worse?
Lately, I think of these lines in reference to many things. But, more often than not, I think of them in reference to social media.
There are many who have waxed poetic about the disadvantages of social media, ironically on social media. The idea of social media is fantastic. We can "connect" to friends, family and like-minded people from across the globe. Social media has been a fantastic tool, helping so many people and organizations raise money, spread the word about important causes and news, and connecting those whose relations are far away.
But there is a darker, insidious side of social media, and it's one I have been thinking a lot about lately.
Social media allows us to only present to others the personae we want to present to the world. And, many times, that personae isn't entirely based in reality. This has happened recently with someone I know who has been outed as having fashioned an almost entirely fictitious reality in order to swindle people. Not cool.
On the flip side, social media also gives fodder to our every passing whim and thought. We all have that one friend who spouts off on Facebook about highly personal details of their life, details that probably should be kept private. And social media is often used for darker purposes: stealing identities, trolling for sex or, even worse, trolling for sex from teens, and virtual bullying. And how many stories have we seen in the media lately where lovers post photos of their murdered spouses on Facebook, or teens post angry threats of violence on their Twitter sites before committing such atrocities.
Last night, as I was flipping through my Facebook newsfeed, an ugly side of me started coming to out. Like Sigourney Weaver in the 1986 James Cameron classic Aliens, a repulsive monster started to rear its hideous head, a cynical, flippant nastiness that snorted at what it perceived as naivete and pretense.
"Oh aren't you loving life," it quipped sarcastically.
"Freaking narcissist," it scoffed. It jeered at the annoying, inspirational memes.
It rolled its eyes with contempt at your political leanings, thoughts on abortion, God, the death penalty, the weather...
Ugh. Normally, I am hopelessly optimistic and positive-minded. But not last night.
I had to put it down, step away. And lately, I have had to put it down more often than not.
If I'm being honest, life was better before I knew the intimate every thought of the people in my life, or every political/religious belief they had, or every self-righteous proclamation.
What I really want to know is
are things getting better or are they getting worse?
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