Just A Thought: Sharing

When talking about sharing it is a broad topic that would take forever to go over but with “Just a Thought” & the series, in general, it is an avenue to speak on topics that deserve some highlights on it, even if it won’t be covered entirely. When looking at sharing anyone can go in any direction for a topic, however, the way I’m going is the state of it over the decades & how it’s changed compared to certain things we had over time.

The Concept of Sharing

When we talk about sharing stripped down to its basic form it is when info or items are passed on to someone else. Whether it’s done through a platform, verbally, or even non verbally, no matter how it is the act of communicating something so it may be grasped whether the level of importance or if it’s important or not. It’s been done several centuries before us and will probably be done after us as well. It may have been simpler in earlier times like Indians with smoke signals as examples and gotten more sophisticated with the likes of twitter & the retweet, Facebook & the share button, & even text messaging now, but the foundation is always the same.

Sharing Over The Years 

I remember a time when I was younger and the norm was nobody really had great internet no

because best case scenario you had dial up, making you decide between the web or using the phone & before smartphones everyone had the simpler phones that would flip open, had a pull out antenna, texting was harder because you only had 15 keys, & snake or bowling games if you were lucky, no apps. I say this because there was a time we didn’t have things like internet at our fingertips or lots of information as well because the infrastructure wasn’t even there for that so we had to share in simpler ways well before internet was but we had to like without certain amenities because they weren’t developed like they are yet, we lived without them no problems and owe were in a generation that didn’t have certain things compared to the next generation, these things have changed how we share in a bigger picture. In the times before we had internet & social media at our fingertips there was a time (especially in the ’90s) where information was shared person to person whether in person, or the phone, or through snail mail/fax if it was necessary, info and things that happened weren’t under meticulous scrutiny like today even though things were still happening & at the same time because of the simplicity of it all people were more guarded about things not because they didn’t want to share but it wasn’t a prevalent thing to do so at the time. Fast forward to now the thing that has changed is it being even more prevalent because of the mediums & platforms we have today. Before a certain time we didn’t have certain things like Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, smartphones with full keyboards, or even WiFi that allows us to get on the internet untethered as an example, over time having more sophisticated avenues of sharing has allowed us to share more in this age & create things that are only possible with these things (influencers, unsigned models, and even creators) which can be positive or negative based on how it’s used. We’ve never been so far or behind as a population because of it. 

Cons of Sharing 

With everything that comes around or is created because of it, we are always prone to good and bad things because of it being around, same goes for sharing. The cons or negatives of sharing are things like oversharing where a person does it because they have the medium or platform to do so but overuse it Sharing constantly when they should practice moderation instead of just posting things even if they are trivial, the next con is “flexing” it’s when someone puts up a facade that you can see at face value however in real life they are the total opposite, social media allows us to show one thing while we do another because photos are a millisecond & people take several proofs before they get something, while we act differently when we have a camera on us for (like vlogs as an example) because  technology has allowed it to happen but a result of it we are physically & mentally tired because of it. Another thing negative with sharing is we live in a echo chambers that are basically people that have the same viewpoints as us in a broad perspective, the problem with this is when we’re not on things like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter on which have algorithms where we don’t see things we don’t agree with or relate to it’s not shown to us most people have problems with dealing with it in person or are you are 1 of 1 passive-aggressive when confronting it because it is rare when they see it & when they do in some form people don’t know how to act when someone disagrees with them instead of being “yes men”, the final cons of sharing are judgement & comparison. When we pass constructive criticism or our own viewpoints on misinformation sparingly then their is no problem, the problem is everyone passes judgment on everything nowadays whether warranted or not basically dragging someone for something they don’t believe in regularly. The flip side of sharing now is comparison, your 1 of 1 & everyone is unique, however people see someone or something at face value whether they are physically fit, have something that they don’t, or do something they want to do, instead of trying to better themselves or make their own way they compare themselves to thing they see shared instead not really going over everything that got them or it there.

Pros of Sharing 

With sharing it’s not all doom and gloom, there are some upsides to it. For one when sharing is done moderately you are able to see things that weren’t possible several years ago, the next thing that is positive is when people have respect for others views even if you may not agree with them personally, a dialogue is started rather than people yelling at each other over something that is shared, sharing also allows us to learn & grow from other people’s progression  as well as their journey, life is like a game of minesweeper you can click on the squares & hopefully get lucky or learn from others that did it before us, the same with sharing and us, we could judge & just do it ourselves bumping our head while someone did it before or stay in our lane but at the same time learn from others mistakes and shortcomings as well as their success too so we can adapt accordingly, good examples of this is a photographer like Brooily, a creator & mountain biker in Seth’s bike hacks, Craig King, Misti Pointe & Nardia Boodoo ballerinas , or Marilyn Melo who is a signed model now as examples. When we stop comparing & actually take in a person’s journey ,progression, & what they share for ourselves we get better because of it & grow instead of becoming stagnant in our own ways.

Epilogue 

Nowadays people share way more than normal which saturates the population with information that may be wrong or right & in turn because of the sharing certain fields get filled, however when we do it correctly & adapt to how we do it we are better for it because we actually take in what is being shared for personal gain instead of just judging or comparing off the top. This is just a thought.