I've come to the conclusion that I might be what some people would term a social media snob. Not in the 'hipster' sense of the term, i.e. needing to be on board with the latest site/app/means of networking before it becomes too mainstream, but (and you can read the above pigeon-holing as an example) more in the 'this is where I'm comfortable and the rest of you who are trying too hard look a bit silly' sense. I don't think they've come up with an acronym for that one yet.
The trouble with age, they say, is that you get stuck in your ways. For those who spent/are spending their teens and early twenties posting duck-face selfies and ambiguous song lyrics, one could be forgiven for expecting (or at least hoping) that this isn't the case. It's a worn-out cliché really, one which has sat in common parlance for long enough to no longer be qualified by most people using it. I would posit that it's likely we simply become more comfortable with criticising the ways of others. After all, it can hardly be argued in this day and age that people in their forties don't use social media because it wasn't around when they were younger, or that 50 is the upper threshold for trying new foods or travel experiences - or, indeed, that age carries with it a bigotry or judgementalism forgiven only by virtue of the generation to which it belongs. Children born into the sexual revolution of the 1960s are reaching fifty now, and while it shouldn't be assumed that they all therefore perpetuate or approve the subsequent relaxation of social mores, there is a lot to be said for recognising that age doesn't equal closed-mindedness.
That being said, the natural confidence grown through age and experience does tend to leave us freer to differ in opinion from one another. This is where I think my snobbery comes in; as I become less worried about how people think of me, I develop less tolerance for the actions of those I could, in less kind moments, perceive to be 'les poseurs'.
It's a worrying development. Now when I see facebook posts involving multiple hashtags, rather than a pang of envy directed at those who have been effortlessly incorporated into the hallowed realms of the twittersphere, I have to fight the urge to lash out in a spasm of grammar-related angst. I once tried posting the (what I thought was smug and ironic) response, #don'tyouknowthisisn'ttwitter - only to be rebuffed with '...and?' Amidst the #justsayin', #YOLO, and, a personal favourite, #Armani #jeans (wouldn't you just put those words together?!), I no longer see myself as the aspiring, uninvited outsider but as the spurned voice of reason. I try to fight it, reminding myself of tipsy bathroom selfies and poor poetry verses which I have almost certainly inflicted on cyberspace. Or, which may be more dangerous, I can observe from afar and observe silently - poor little fad followers, how would they know any better?
My problem is that, whatever my personal reaction, I feel deep down that neither party in this exchange is on the right side of the long-term balance. I am told that I am missing out on participating in a form of communication which puts countless ideas, opinions and unique thoughts at the fingertips of the masses in a condensed and globally-accessible format; that humanity is able to participate in conversations spanning geography, ideology, age and gender; that modern business success is dependent upon harnessing and wielding the power of such a tool. All of which are excellent arguments, and exactly what I would base an academic argument upon - if I felt it were true. In reality, when faced with yet another 140-character slating of a TV talent show and strings of words without any coherent sentence structure to make a thought intelligible, I just can't be bothered. Is there a haiku-only media site? A political forum with verifiable, digestible tidbits? Great, sign me up. Anything that requires a bit of thought in the expression so that I feel it's worth my time to read it.
The alternative is of course that I am a terribly judgemental old crone who takes advantage of a decent education and a blog log-in to argue the living daylights out of anything that annoy me. After all, I didn't get a MySpace until it was dying, lasted on Bebo all of six months before Facebook took over, and never understood how to use Twitter well enough to get anything out of it other than weekly email updates which go, unread, straight into my trash folder. For the thousands who have been published on sports blogs, the fans whose days have been made by a celebrity re-tweet, the artists who have successfully promoted an event, the lucky few who have wrangled key job interviews - I have no doubt Twitter and other social media has been a godsend. Not everyone spouts a crazed diatribe at the least provocation. Not everyone feels the need to make their life a melodrama and their cyber buddies the pawns of social-mobility-related schemings. Not everyone has forgotten how to conjugate a sentence.
However, it may also be worth mentioning that not everyone understands that my reticence in the use of social media isn't necessarily a direct reflection on them. I received a LinkedIn connection request in late May from an acquaintance whom I had met a handful of times and was never in contact with anymore. Not being able to access LinkedIn at the time, I left it. Last week I received a Facebook email from the same individual, a sinister and unexpected on-liner, reading simply: 'LinkedIn.' Apparently it's now acceptable to threaten people into participating in the great game of 'love me!' When did this happen? One thing is for certain - I shall not be making any endorsements for him anytime soon.
