Technology Is Making Us Dumber: DEW Water, The Latest Victim of Drive-by Ignorance
This is why I have never forwarded any of those “pass this on” type messages that always seem to clutter up my various inboxes everyday.
The ones that usually read along the lines of “pass this on and the first person to respond will love you eternally” or “send this to ten people and see if God doesn’t bring you financial victory” speak for themselves. What I’m talking about now is the next-level stuff. Stupid messages that are either some lonely prankster’s idea of fun or the work of people who have something to gain in the demise of another persons reputation.
For the love of unicorns and all things rational, have we lost the ability to think in our “smart” and “forward thinking” age.
The more recent of these campaigns has hit close to home for me and I’m a bit pissed off. A recent SMS and Blackberry broadcast which seems to have gone viral in Durban has been aimed at damaging the reputation of a local company that has made strides in the bottled water industry and is conceptually a world leader. The only thing that really gets to me is not the content of this message (which ridiculously states that Dew water is killing people north of our borders) but the way in which I have seen friends blindly “passing it on”. Friends who know better. People who know better.
Read this message posted up today by Dew (a company which I love and is an entrepreneurial success for our city).
This is me drinking DEW water as I write this. Apparently, I'll be dead in a few hours.
This is the bottom-line, almost every forwarded email, Blackberry broadcast, or vague SMS you receive containing “vital” information on how there is a foreign national down the road from you that is a well know cannibal, or a message containing photos of an elephant doing cocaine while his zookeeper turns his back… is complete and utter rubbish. Please never ever send that crap to me thinking for one moment that I’m going to take it seriously.
My word, I spend my life on social communication platforms, probably at a much higher rate than you would believe and I have still not confused the lines between reality and the online world. On that note, please could you also stop sending me requests to sign a petition telling the Hague about the country-wide, “official” genocide currently being committed against whites. All that’s going to happen in return is I will send you a link to dictionary.com containing the actual definition of the word “genocide”.
Here’s another tip, don’t take people’s Facebook profiles seriously. IT IS NOT A TRUE REPRESENTATION OF THE REAL WORLD (I’m still amazed that some people need to be told that). Facebook is basically a fun platform where we can all put or best foot forward. Where we are continually picking and choosing the information we share with others, where bored people have the opportunity to stir by uttering complete nonsense into their status’ and comment threads. I remember the 1994-election-like state of concern that people went into with all those “pass it on” message informing us “that in 2 weeks, Facebook will be relaunching and as a result we will all lose our profiles forever unless we pay a fee”, I feel sorry for all the people who took that seriously and wasted their money generators and cases of baked beans. Have we become so lazy that we can’t discern anything anymore. Or we just don’t bother trying.
Pure logic, when engaged, should help you decipher what the truth is. Our society is built on fear, we thrive on it, we crave it to justify all our ridiculous notions, we need it so that we can have conversation fillers at dinner parties in a world that has become more and more devoid of substance. If reading this is distracting you from thinking about what I’m saying, turn off the TV- don’t worry, there will be a repeat of Run’s Family or Kendra on tomorrow.
Please, let’s just think a bit.
Facebook is not real life. Anonymous SMS campaigns are usually complete and utter crap, and Dew water has never been into Middle Africa, let alone killed 200 of its citizens.
Your’s in intellectual effort and general common-sense
TwoSlice Dré
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It is perhaps, more accurately, the misuse of technology which comes across as appearing “Dumb”.
On the two counts of deciding how people express themselves in their social spheres, I say, “wishful thinking”.
Facebook is many things to many people, but consider the grandmother, glued to Facebook to get her next fix of missed grand-kids abroad… Would you be so adamant in presenting her with the idea that all of that is “NOT A TRUE REPRESENTATION OF THE REAL WORLD” ?
The BBM mindset is a social culture on it’s own, and with each social platform, there are ways to express the “validate me” or “show me attention” factor. Facebook has pokes, mxit had* “TMS” (tell me something), BBM has pings and chain spam. Many times I’ve only ever BBM’ed people as a result of chain spam; its a great conversation starter.
While an adverse affect on Dew’s brand may be unfortunately, there is no such thing as bad press…
While the article is clearly a rant piece (to be taken lightly by default), I believe the tone incorrectly presents these ideas as fact when other possibilities clearly exist.
So, great response, genuinely. Here’s my feedback:
1) “Misuse of technology” is entirely more accurate, but to be honest I think the title I went with stuck out more. But yes, I do agree. Ishould have maybe stated that. The other problem though, although it might not seem like it, is that I do actually struggle to meaningfully offend people which is why I like to play the gentlemen sometimes and use “the royal we” as opposed to saying what I actually mean. eg. I said something along the lines of “how lazy are we getting?”, what I actually meant was “how lazy can some of you people get?”. But now you outed me, dang.
2) The grandmother: Yes, I would totally stick to my guns there. Facebook, is the put-your-best-foot-forward website for us all. It only ever represents a portion of what is actually going on in peoples lives. It is never the true representation. For instance, none of my mates have ever taken self-shots and added it to their “Mobile Uploads” album while clearing their desk from a job they’ve just been fired from. I very really see status’ reading, sincerely: “Bummer. Just got syphilis from the girl I met at Belagio’s last week. WTF! It’s so itchy.” I agree with you, Facebook is many thing to many different people, but while Granny might get to see how her little ones are growing, I doubt it’s Facebook that will break the news of little Tiffany’s teenage pregnancy.
3) There is definitely such a thing as bad press. Bad press is press, I won’t take that away from you. But you tell Ryan Giggs that there is no such thing as bad press. Or the owner of Dew, who I sat with while he fielded numerous phone calls from concerned clients asking if they should withdraw their business, that although his physical production and literal income might take a nose dive because of the very same press we are talking about, that that press isn’t “bad”. Come on guy, really? No such thing as bad press? That’s tantamount to saying that explosive investigative journalism will, in the end, only really create “anything-but-bad” awareness for the companies/individuals they might have been driven to expose for improper behaviour; South African politicians aside (clearly the exception
).
So then, I agree with you on point 1, my bad. Agree with half of point 2. And flat-out disagree with point 3. That seems balanced and fair, right?
Regards,
OneSlice
Okay what I’m about to post is dak random – but this is a representation of real life, on the internet:
Hanging with your grandparents, talking smack over black & white prints.
But I don’t know, that’s probably about it.
312356543645327 videologs of people getting other people pissed off over stupid shit, and then 1 video of a girl talking to her grandfather about chilling on a ship in Japan, in WWII.
I’m mostly with TwoSlice on this one.
PS: Found this video whilst trying to acquire foley audio of pages turning. So weird.
Well Written!
the DEW water informational cascade is related to what is known as the Blue Star meme, an early example of a viral story that has replicated and survived over generations. ito memetic theory (worth a google search btw) the mobile phone and internet platforms are the perfect medium for transmission of information, whether the information is true or not.
one of our challenges as the pioneer users of this tech, is to be more selective and SHIFT+DEL useless memes (or ideas/ stories/aspects of culture)