I’m a little bored at the moment because I’m waiting for some Silver II stuff to happen. So, since I still feel the itch to write, and haven’t fully formed ideas on what to do with the next book, let’s ramble and chat about interesting things shall we?

First up: Stephen King has joined twitter! @StephenKingAuth . No clue what he’ll do with his account, but it’s there.

Second: The Silver Ninja II beta test has begun and I am both excited and terrified as to what will come of it. Excited, because I really think the 2nd book is leagues better than the first and I really believe it will do well. Terrified, because the beta readers I invited are the ones who hated or disliked the first book.

You may be wondering why I would invite people who didn’t like the book to read the second one. Well, in each of their reviews, the people who disliked the book saw great potential and wanted to be fans. They said, “I wanted to like this book, but so and so prevented me from doing so.” I couldn’t think of anyone better than my harshest critics to help me improve as an author. I hope I win them over.

Third: I have some awesome Silver Ninja artwork coming down the pipe. Nothing that I can share at the moment, but soon, I promise.

All right, enough about my books. What I actually want to talk about is Social Media and my opinions on it. No, I’m not talking about quitting facebook or any of that same old story. I’m much more interested in discussing something else.

Social Media is a compound word that is ironic in its definition. It’s supposed to be media that encourages people to socialize. Yet, in my observations, social media has made us more isolated and depressed. Here’s why…

Human beings are social animals. We cannot survive in pure isolation or we would go mad and start to create imaginary friends to keep us company. Why do we fear being alone? Because if we don’t have companionship or someone that cares about us, we feel like failures who are doomed to be alone. If you break it down into bare bones, it’s really just a means for our survival as a species, but regardless, we need other people in order to survive. Whether we like it or not.

So then came the internet. The holy grail of connecting the world separated by thousands of miles into mere seconds. It is through this connection that internet social media websites were born. It started with the aol chatrooms and what not, where a bunch of pre-teens would hang out and talk about random things. Then myspace came along, facebook, twitter, etc. and suddenly the world was just connected.

It should have ushered in an era of prosperity. Imagine the conversations we could now have with people around the world. We could finally make strong connections with one another.

Yeah, right.

Instead of friendly discourse, there are flame wars and arguments that sprout in the blink of an eye. People will be spiteful, and will find any small way to hurt you. Or they’ll be socially inept and tell you to go kill yourself because you said something they disagreed with. Rather than come together as a digital community, society has begun to devolve.

When’s the last time someone called you on the phone other than to say, “Where are you?” No, instead you get a TEXT that asks you how you’re doing. A text. Why a text? Because it’s more “convenient.”

Instead of hanging out in real life, people share experiences through social media and photos. As if they should live vicariously through a poorly shot photograph.

Obviously, it’s great to share photos when you have friends or relatives who live countries away. But what about the people who live right down the street from you? Or within driving distance? Shouldn’t you share those photos in person so you could tell the story behind it?

By living in the social media world, we as a result, are becoming unsociable creatures. Our social network, is actually a social cave, where the only important person is you. And it’s this mentality, this complete disregard for other human beings, that I fear for what our society will look like in ten years.

Proper manners are being lost and it is our responsibility to not allow ourselves to be consumed by technology. Instead of paying attention to a conversation we’re having with someone at dinner, we’re glued to our phones to see updates on whatever trivial thing we’re paying attention to. Or worse, you’re having a texting conversation with the person sitting across from you.

I don’t own a smart phone like the rest of the universe (though I will have to eventually). I actually have to access twitter through my home PC. Any social media updates that I do, I have to do at home. I’m not tweeting or facebooking when I’m out to dinner with my girlfriend. I’m not signing into foursquare so I could be the mayor of nothing. No, instead I choose to live in the moment, away from the digital society.

Look, social media can be a wonderful tool. It helps me mass-market my books, gives me news updates on things that interest me, and it has introduced me to some very nice and wonderful people. But remember that at the end of the day, when you disconnect from the web, the real world is where you live, not online.

I have been moved to tears by things I’ve been exposed to on the internet. I’ve kept in touch with long lost friends and family

Your friends should be visited; your families should be called; and your children should be taught that meeting and talking to people in the flesh is more important than what’s trending on the web. Even if you are anti-social, like me. 🙂