Wind

I have a lot of thoughts. Some of them hold value. Others are utterly worthless. I think that's actually how most people are, so I don't feel too weird about it. But, I often imagine how my life would be different if I were born 10, 20, 50, 100 years before that fateful day in 1992. I also frequently think of myself as better fit for those time periods, and those who lament my terribly inconsistent communication habits would probably agree. Or, see it as an excuse I make for myself for not being a reliable communicator. Yeah, screw you guys.

I don't think everything clever has been said, but wouldn't it be reasonable to think that a grand majority of clever thoughts have been thought? We have 7 billion people on earth, all of whom have their entire lives to think of things. You would think we'd cover all our bases. But, there's still plenty of gold left to be mined, so whenever I think of a unique thought or joke, I feel the need to throw it out there.

Into the wind, you see.

Social media has spread from platform to platform, covering standard human thought process like a gaseous cloud, expanding and filling the entire void. For instance, try to think of a website that should exist, or a different form of social media that should exist. Such cognitive construction is difficult with so much already out there ("that has to exist already").  If you have an idea, there's a proper medium to express it. How many more mediums can there be?

All of this contributes to the wind, the white noise and assumed progress of social media. When you use Facebook, do you feel like you're advancing your life? Socially, perhaps you are, but is it important change, or is it just dust in the wind? It's probably just dust in the wind. I mean, yeah, I'm quoting Kansas here, but it's valid, right?

Biz Stone, in a commercial for some off-brand vodka, said he thinks Twitter (which he co-founded) is like a river, that if you want access to it, you dive right in. Otherwise, no big deal. And while that's an amicable, poetic way of defining Twitter, I could see it more like wind. It picks up, dies down, sometimes it's nice and pleasant, other times it blusters too hard and is obnoxiously noisy. Rivers come from somewhere and go somewhere. Wind just passes by. We can shout into the wind, but more than likely our measly contribution isn't going to change anything. We just want to be part of the wind, because people feel the wind, and we want to be felt.

Facebook is similar. Another medium where you can shout into the wind, except your friends are there to give you a reaction and shout back. None of it will get you heard, none of it will get you published, none of it will make you famous. All of it will give you the opportunity to be felt. And being felt is a nice reminder that you exist. If you put something on the Internet, they say, anyone can see it. Well, anyone can not see it, also. It can be completely ignored, or just not cared about. This blog is wind, also.

It's fun to play in the wind. You can act out, be as bold as you want, showcase your pearly morals, express dissatisfaction, pretend no one will hear you, pretend everyone will hear you, pretend that that one special person will hear you and understand you better, pretend anything you want. Freedom of speech was devised without social media in mind, but what a perfect forum to practice free speech. The almighty Internet, wherein all your opinions matter and are as visible as any other opinion. Someone tells you your wrong and you know you're alive.

Rarely will the wind move you. Sometimes the wind can be terribly destructive. But one thing remains true: when the wind stops blowing, there is stillness, tranquility, calm. Some people, those better fit for the past, enjoy it when the breeze dies down and the world can be observed with the eyes, and instead of hurtling your thoughts into the wind to be felt, you hold them to yourself, and that's enough to know you're alive.

And then the wind picks up again.

--Eliot Sill

Racing for the Stares

--by Robert Langellier

Jimmy Hibsch took this photo, I think

As you may or may not have electricity, Osama bin Laden is officially dead to America.

Let the comedy begin.

If you're not approximately college-aged, with a sense of humor, and good at social media, you're probably hidden from my News Feed. My friends consist mostly of cynical journalism majors who are too smart for their own good, as well as otherwise smartass teenagers. This tragic lack of diversity makes for a pretty homogeneous output of Facebook statuses when anything monumental happens, like the death of a major political figure.

Now, the news sweep that takes place over social media is astonishing and respectable to witness. Within minutes of the news hitting campus, Facebook and Twitter exploded with Osama-related status updates and gifs of Obama kicking doors down. That's really cool. That's definitely one of the prime benefits to social media: the spreading of news. Earlier this year, for example, there was a false rumor of a shooter on Missouri's campus. Had there actually been one, the wildfire of urgent text messages and Tweets very well may have saved more than a few lives. Posting news on the public forum is extremely important in creating a rapidly reacting community.

But that's not what happens when there isn't a shooter on campus. When Osama bin Laden dies, or when anything else happens that doesn't directly affect its users, Facebook becomes a race for Likes and lols. After I heard of his death, I pulled up Facebook, clicked on Most Recent, and watched some really funny jokes steadily get less funny.

• More like Osama bin dead... right guys
• Watching Now: How to Secure a 2nd Term in 10 Minutes. Starring: Barack Obama
• excited to play "god bless the usa" 10x more than i already do this week
• Did someone die?
• OMG Michael Jackson is dead! 
• Obama's speech about Bin Laden will interrupt the end of Celebrity Apprentice. Question the President's word and he will go out and fucking kill Osama Bin Laden just to ruin your stupid show. Obama - 1, Trump - 0 
• "somehow he finally died."
  "What do you mean? He's an old man with diabetes living in a cave in the desert. The odds are kind of stacked."
  I hate being in the journalism school when world events occur.
• 10 years at playing hide and go seek? That must be a record.
• ROYAL WEDDING!!!!!!! <3   

These are not offensive statuses to me because they're insensitive. Most of them are hilarious, actually, on their own. My roommate Dylan got like 40 Likes for that Donald Trump one. They're offensive to me because they're literally all I saw for about 30 straight updates. 

Nobody seemed to take Osama's death seriously, at least not on Facebook and Twitter. It appears that his death had more comedic impact upon my generation than anything else. Constant social media, I think, has made passing chuckles and mouse clicks the ultimate validation of wit, and wit the ultimate validation of intellect. Political and realistic (non)implications of Osama's death aside, it's kind of sad to see someone's death immediately turned into a lolling competition.