Social media is truly amazing. I am in awe of the great power it wields. Who’d have thought ten years ago how popular cat videos would be? In the before time, playing games with friends meant actually seeing the friends.  If you’re in a tight group of ugly people this could be an issue. Now you don’t have to leave the house, and the games are better. Is that great or what?

But social media is not all lack of sunshine and pictures of roses. No, there is a weird side as well. Think about this. I created a few accounts so I could promote this blog. The very first post I received, was a warning to “Get Off Now!” It further stated, I should save myself, and it is too late for the rest. Wow, if that doesn’t make a guy think twice, I don’t know what does. The thing is, the warning was sent by someone with five-hundred friends. I want five-hundred friends too, so I accepted the warning and pressed on. After that came the cat videos.

The thing about social media is the simple fact that whether someone loves or hates it, they stay involved. I have talked to several people telling me they despise the stupid posts they receive. Yet they look at them every day. It’s like the silly lady who calls up the Shock Jock saying he offended her twenty-three times in a day. The thing is she’s still listening.

Another confusing aspect are the names of the sites. What the heck is a Facebook? Also, I truly do not have the correct vocal cords to send anyone a tweet.  Those are admittedly a bit weird, but not devastating to social fabric of civilization. However, the oddest name out there is a relatively new site called Discord. In this one there aren’t as many random posts, you set up a space and chat with friends. That’s cool, but the name is bizarre.

I mean what would think you if saw an app called Discord? That’s what I need, more discord in my life, it’s just too darn peaceful. And look, there’s an app called argument as well. I was picking my son up from school the other day and another student very clearly said, “Don’t forget to tell me your discord. My first thought was they were discussing a project on the French Revolution. Imagine my surprise to find out discord was a friendly thing. Who’d of thunk it?

The only place I see a discord app being applicable would for the president. But he doesn’t use Discord, he tweets. Yet every day, his tweets cause more and more discord. So, if Twitter causes discord, does Discord cause people to twitter? The short answer is, “No.” The slightly longer answer is, “I don’t know.” The really long answer is the next paragraph.

Remember, all social media is supposed to connect people together. So, communicating is the ultimate goal. Now, I have heard about talking people being all-a-twitter. Discord is an app to promote chatting. Chatting is talking. So consequently, If Discord is chatting, and chatting makes people all-a-twitter, then ipso-facto, (neat word), yes, Discord causes people to twitter. Boy, that was a long way around the rock to get nowhere.

No matter which, social media is going to go through a sharp change. Recently Mark Zuckerberg announced he was altering Facebook to be less susceptible to special interest groups affecting public opinion and spreading discord. Will changing Facebook cause more discord? Or will Discord change to match Facebook. I’m not going to take that question up. The last time I did, two paragraphs ago, I really didn’t accomplish anything. Either way, I’m pretty sure there will be more discord among the special interests.

Another recent change in social media that I don’t understand, happened to Twitter. Twitter recently went from 140 characters to 280. This was a great controversy. People said it would ruin Twitter’s read-ability. I mean, who has the time to read 280 characters? Notice I did not say words, 280 words do take a minute or so to read. In typing tests, a word consists of five characters. If true, then 280 characters would take twenty seconds to read, and 140 ten seconds. Those folks must be some kind of busy for those ten seconds to be so disruptive to their reality. Although, they needn’t have worried. According to Twitter, people only tweet about 190 characters. Thank goodness for that. I was concerned a meal might be delayed by ten seconds and I would starve to death. If that happened it would certainly cause some serious discord in my life.

A thought just came to me. (There’s something new.) If you chat with Discord, does that mean you can only say negative things? Contrary-wise, do your tweets have to be happy if you like birds, and annoying if you don’t. Another thing is, birds mostly tweet to attract a mate. So, is Trump using his tweets correctly, because he is certainly attracting attention. Maybe Twitter should update itself to be like Tinder, so followers could swipe left if it’s fake news. Another thing, I have heard poker players read their opponent’s faces. Does that mean their using a face book? If so, how can a website be a face book when so many folks post photos of their pets or lunches as their profile picture? Cats faces are very hard to read.

With all these questions about social media site names, I’m afraid I will have to just leave social media forever. Oh wait, someone sent me a cute picture of a puppy.