Take a Second and Be Thankful

In a world of possessions and materialism it is easy to look at things you don’t have and get upset. Instead of thinking about the things that you don’t have, be thankful for the things that you do have and never take anything you have for granted.

After making it through Hurricane Sandy with my house, family and friends all safe. Watching millions of people on television lose everything they had really hits you hard. In my house, I was without lights for two days and even that was pretty tough to deal with. Once the lights returned, turning on the television and seeing the emotions pour out of people as they looked at the remains of their house really puts everything in perspective. Imagine fighting for everything you had and watching  it all wash away over night.

Sometimes when you win, you actually lose and sometimes when you lose you actually win.

There are so many people in the world who think that their life is horrible and most of the time it is because of unimportant things in their life that make them upset. People go on to social media site and cry and complain over littlest things in their life. Things such as their phone not working, getting a bad grade or not getting attention from someone. All of these “problems” are nothing compared to some of the more serious problems that are actually going on in the world today.

I know there have been other devastating storms in the past, but this was the first one that actually hit my home state of New Jersey. Most of the time you see it on television and never really feel the emotion. It is totally different seeing it first hand to people and place you know. Looking at some of the beaches and places that you have been to, now gone, just makes you think about life All that remains are memories of your childhood and past.

It’s easy to get down, but now that it’s over things can only get better and I know its cliché to say. Sometimes you wonder why things like this happen and you really can’t answer it. I can’t speak for the people who lost their houses and members of their family as a result of the hurricane, but I can speak for the ones who are lucky to still have everything.

Next time something bad happens to you, take a second and think of someone who has it a lot worse than you to. Then see if your “problem” is as bad as theirs.

Go Live Life and Stop Posting About it!

Today I did this, tomorrow I will do that and I can’t believe that actually happened to me. Sounds kind of familiar, right?

It’s pretty much what people use social media for, that is to share exactly what happened to them every second of the day. Some people are obsessed with social media and the need to update their life to an audience. There are all kinds of people who use social media. Family members, friends and even celebrities use it as well. I think it’s time to stop talking about what happened to you on a daily basis and time to go out and actually live life without a status update every hour.

There are many positives when it comes to social media. I think the biggest one is staying in touch with all of your close contacts. It’s a quick, easy way to say hi to someone who you want to talk to, but don’t really want to call up on the phone. Also, it can be used to share pictures and memories that you can sit back and reminisce on some day. All of this I get and understand. I think that it is great to keep in contact with someone who you really couldn’t see on a daily basics. I am not saying social media is a bad thing, I’m saying people need to stop spending every hour of the day using social media.

Hop on a social media site and there are posts about some of the most useless things ever. Some of these posts include people pretty much sharing their life to the world. There are people who tell every little issue of their life, including what they should eat for dinner that night. I think that people like to use it for attention, they want it to seem that they are so important that even their littlest of decisions will impacts someones life reading it. The biggest abuse of social media has to be celebrities. They use social media as a platform to build their celebrity status and obtain a big of a  following as possible.

Social media pressures young teenage kids into following trends for all the wrong reasons.

Let’s take an example, your friend Lisa has a party with a few friends. The day after, she posts all of her pictures from the party on a social media site where the world can see. All of her pictures include her and her friends in revealing clothing, surrounded by under age drinking. Everyone she knows comments on her pictures saying how much fun they had and how it was the greatest night ever. As a young kid at the time, you see these other kids getting so much interest and popularity that you want to do the same exact them as they do. Why would you not? What kid doesn’t’ want the spotlight and attention. Teenage kids are promoting that these actions are acceptable and worst of all celebrities are doing the same exact thing, showing that it okay to do.

Is social media a good thing or a bad thing? I would still say it was a good thing, but with some hesitation. It’s great to use to keep in touch with your friends and to share your ideas or whatever is on your mind from time to time. It gets to a point where it is used just for the sake of trying to get attention. What is the point of posting party pictures or revealing pictures of yourself on social media? The answer is that there is none and trust me there are kids, teens and adults who continue to do so. There is also no point to update every hour what you are doing, or where you are going, it is just crazy! It’s fine to enjoy social media, but not don’t become consumed with it. Don’t go crazy posting random things just for attention, just remember the world is watching.