We have probably all, in some way, been witness (or been victim to – shame on you) the “YOLO” craze. Most recently derived from hip-hop artist Drake’s hit song, “The Motto,” the clever acronym stands for “You Only Live Once.” Most literally, Drake is suggesting that since “you only live once” you should probably spend a lot of money, drink a lot of expensive alcohol, do a lot of drugs, fraternize with a lot of women, and ignore any “haters” because they’re just jealous of your lifestyle. In practice, not only are most of these things unrealistic for those of us not living the celebrity lifestyle, but most of them also have the potential to have fairly adverse consequences. I guess that’s where YOLO comes in. YOLO suggests that since you only have one life, you should ignore the consequences of your actions because they essentially do not matter.
Less literally, this acronym could be a “cooler” way to say, “live your life to the fullest” or to justify doing something slightly outside of your comfort zone, such as taking an impromptu trip to Europe or striking up a conversation with the Ryan Gosling look-a-like at the bar. However, it is simply impossible for an Internet-dependent society such as ours to take this clever, potentially motivational, and relatively innocent phrase and not kill it. If the search results for #YOLO on Twitter weren’t enough to make you hate my generation, then take a look at these memes:
People actually make these and think that they are funny.The Internet has allowed for proliferation of this embarrassing trend, as well as ignorance. This is why I hate the Internet.
I may also love the Internet for the same reason that I hate the Internet. Through the use of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and the like, we are able to so easily spread our new ideas, knowledge, and even campaign for the greater good through crowdfunding efforts on Indiegogo and Kickstarter. We create viral videos and have Internet celebrities. The ability to transcend the traditional hierarchical structure of society, or “disintermediation” as The Social Economy calls it, is one of the most fascinating and exciting features of the giant social network that is the Internet. Though this disintermediation may be slightly threatening and “disruptive to power structures” in a traditional business setting, it has proven to be an extremely effective marketing tool for others. Justin Bieber, who most recently became the Twitter user with the most followers, was just KidRauhl, posting videos on YouTube of himself singing and playing guitar on street corners in his native Canada, until Scooter Braun discovered him while he was browsing videos. Outside of cyberspace and before the Internet, getting a contact in the music industry was an incredibly laborious and daunting task. Nowadays, you can post your song on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter page, and chances are through a series of strategic shares and RTs, someone in a position of power has seen your video. Pretty amazing stuff.
So it turns out that I love the Internet. But it also scares me. Just as it allowed us to campaign for disaster relief for Hurricane Sandy and express our condolences for the victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, it has also allowed us to spread hashtags such as #cutforBieber and facilitate cyber-bullying. Not to mention the spread of YOLO. The combination of the Internet’s intangibility and its immeasurable power is slightly frightening. When people ask me, “What is the point to all of this nonsense?” (obviously referring to my social media obsession), I can’t help but think, “What isn’t the point?” Social media is really more powerful than we could ever know, and until business executives reconcile with the fact that the use of social media in the workplace will change the way things are done traditionally, they might be behind their competition. I really can’t wait to learn about the ways that social media will make an impact on my future, and how I can make an impact through social media in my future career.
I’ll leave you with this:
#YOLO,
KP
Nice post. I’ve basically been ignoring YOLO on the internet because it embarrasses me to be human. However, that SNL video is awesome, and naturally, I posted to my Facebook…
It is pretty easy to hate the internet when the vast majority of it unproductive consumption of unproductive memes/gifs/comics/videos… Then I realize that there is actually someone who works to keep all this unproductive material going! (And then I realize that I am one of them…)
One of my colleagues did an interview for the JesuitPost (http://thejesuitpost.org/site/2013/01/theres-something-about-mary-is-my-homegirl/) about her silly Tumblr on being a theology graduate student, and this is what she had to say about the production of her “silly” material amidst serious professional work:
“Tim: So, wait, you’re basically saying that this really is the explanation for the famous Mary is My Homegirl?!
http://maryhomegirl.tumblr.com/post/35837492597/my-explanation-for-the-existence-of-this-tumblr
MIMHG: Absolutely! Not that I count myself among the wisest people I know, but I find that I lose my passion and my work loses its drive when I start to take myself and what I do too seriously. If I’m going to find joy and fulfillment in academia and theological study, I have to point out the more ridiculous aspects of it, or I would have burned out in my first semester.”
So, maybe there’s a balance to be found in work and play on the internet….
Nice post. I think it picks up on the “double edged sword” nature of social media. It is capable of creating so many positive dynamics, yet these dynamics can so clearly be shifted to the negative. I think this not only applies to individual behavior, but also how groups function as well. What I try to do is figure out how they work so we can maximize the positives and minimize the negatives.
You touch on a really important theme that will continue to present itself throughout this course, which is the good and evils sides of social media. There is information that is cruel and defamatory that is disseminated online, and is cause for things like cyber-bullying. Equally so, the internet can be used to effectively pass along important information and help other people. Nice first post.