Have you seen the video that is a spoken word poem about the isolation of social media and how it creates bad dads and disconnected people?

It’s an interesting piece and worth watching.

I agree that social media isn’t always social—but I don’t think it is the main source of the loneliness and isolation people feel.

It’s easy to blame the computer, iPad and iPhone. But at least television is getting some space from the fear that it was making our brains all mushy.

Of course technology can be used to excess, and people can hide in and behind it.

We also hide in food, drugs and even books. We can show up physically and be present but still hide behind masks—hold secrets in the heart, or tell lies with words or silence.

Technology is a medium that can be used and abused. It has both benefits and excesses.

This video is a great opinion piece and commentary. But it’s a one-sided depiction, done, as far as I can tell, via social media for a social media audience.

Why didn’t he encourage people to go hold hands or make eye contact with one another at the start rather than watch his piece?

It seems like he wanted to make a point and then have us go offline, unplug and tune off.

Why not invite someone to watch with, to hold hands or sit on the lap and discuss?

Social media, conversation, even my commentary on his commentary that you are reading—it’s another form of connecting.

I would not have known about his viewpoint at all except that someone I respect shared it on Facebook.

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Apprentice Editor: Amanda Fleming Taylor / Editor: Renée Picard

Photo: Rosaura Ochoa/Flickr