Why Do You Do What You Do?

[GGT]

Loaded topic, right?

Was talking with a couple of friends earlier.

One friend was hot-to-trot about social networks. The reciprocity of e-mail, voice messages, text messages, blogging, news networks. How to communicate, how to reach others, what does your "voice" mean if you don't express your voice in public? Does that opinion mean less if you're not "out there" expressing it?

The other friend and I were talking about food/nutrition, body image, cultural definitions of self-esteem or beauty or health. It's another type of "voice" by what we show to the world, or what we keep secret in dysmorphia (anorexia or bulemia). Does that opinion mean more if you're "out there" expressing it?

[xaero1]

Well I do spend a reasonable amount of time on Facebook posting jokes for my friends and keeping up with a load of banter. To me it's a form of socialising that I do when I'm not able to see them face-to-face.

I also train at the gym in order to keep myself in shape. I do this because I've always traditionally been tall and skinny and hated the skinny bit. Putting on some muscle not only makes me feel better about myself but also keeps my GF interested

[Ominous Gamer]

what does your "voice" mean if you don't express your voice in public? Does that opinion mean less if you're not "out there" expressing it?

Your friend sounds lazy. Someone I'd expect to own a blog journal

You know how sometimes when people debate in groups on those talking head shows, and everyone starts yelling at each other, and you end up not understanding what anyone is saying?
Yeah, thats social networks. No one gives a shit about what you think unless they ask you. They don't care what you like, or how much you want to donate to some cause no one cares about. You're one small ignored voice in a sea of thousands screaming douchbags.

[GGT]

She's actually very politically active, was in charge of registering voters in her district, and was a delegate in her state's primary.

[Ominous Gamer]

Damn, I was on the wrong end of the specrum. I was guessing she was someone who used social media in an attempt to feel better about being righteous She is on the other end of the problem, over stating the influence of social media because it gives her a voice. She belongs in Dreads thread about twitter.

[GGT]

As usual, my thread title sucks.

Based on two conversations with very different people.....mostly about their Identity and how they project that.....plus a February belated-holiday card I got from a third friend. Wanted to ask others how they define themselves, how they think about their public persona, that kind of thing.

This third friend of mine is a knock-out beauty, drop dead gorgeous, her whole family is! Their card was a posed black and white on the beach, looking like something out of Town and Country or Vanity Fair. But that's because they're all about outward image.....the form letter went on about their fitness adventures, how many miles they'd biked across various states, how many meters they swam, how many competitions they entered....that kind of thing.

It didn't sound very fun, or let on that their marriage is quite stressed, or that their kids are bucking their expectations. But they wanted to be seen as beautiful and fit, living the great life, and see how hard they work to be happy, don't they look happy?

[GGT]

Well I do spend a reasonable amount of time on Facebook posting jokes for my friends and keeping up with a load of banter. To me it's a form of socialising that I do when I'm not able to see them face-to-face.

I also train at the gym in order to keep myself in shape. I do this because I've always traditionally been tall and skinny and hated the skinny bit. Putting on some muscle not only makes me feel better about myself but also keeps my GF interested

What's wrong with being tall and skinny? Do you train at the gym to be healthier, or does it make you feel better if others don't judge you negatively for being tall and skinny?

[xaero1]

What's wrong with being tall and skinny? Do you train at the gym to be healthier, or does it make you feel better if others don't judge you negatively for being tall and skinny?

Well it's because I always hated having skinny arms and find that clothes tend to hang off you when you're tall and skinny. Nobody really makes slim fit clothes, so in order to get the length you have to go Large or Extra-Large.

So now that I weight train I'm a lot better filled out and find clothes look much much better on me. I now like the way I look and I get a lot more attention from women as a result.

[Dreadnaught]

Arguably in our society, it doesn't always matter. It can feel oppressive when a wall of like-minded people are clogging your Facebook news feed with stories about how the governor of Wisconsin is Hitler.

That said, that doesn't mean they define the landscape of opinions. I think Egypt and Libya have expressed this pretty well -- when the Web is cut-off, you need to be out there to be heard.

[oldmunchkin]

Proposals like this always beg the question, Why Do You Do What You Do!

It's getting harder out there for a guy who wants to raise big public fanfare around his marriage proposal. In the media-saturated American scene, you see proposals turning up in newspaper ads, skywriting appeals and--of course--the venerable stadium Jumbotron. So how does a lovestruck beau make his offer really stand out? Why, he asks his lady to marry him in a TV commercial, of course. And that's just what David Jones--a Cleveland-based video producer, conveniently enough--did yesterday to in a successful bid for the hand of his girlfriend, Dee Horton. On Thursday, Horton and her co-workers at a Medina, Ohio hair salon tuned in to the midday newscast on Cleveland's WJW-TV. Jones had told her that he'd be portraying some sort of superhero in a commercial. But as she went about trimming a client's hair with one eye on the broadcast, she soon realized that she was the sole member of this particular commercial's target demographic. "A lot of people say we're living on love, like it's a bad thing," Jones said in the commercial. "How about you and I show the world what true love is all about?" He then pulled out a ring and proposed, and a few seconds later Jones emerged in the salon with a WJW camera crew, and dropped to his knees to propose in person.
Jones had earlier said that he wanted his proposal to be "something neither one of us would ever forget," and he clearly achieved his goal. For her part, Horton said that she contracted cancer shortly after she and Jones began dating, but he stuck by her side and cared for her as she endured surgery and radiation treatments. We wish them all the best. (Photo and video via: Fox 8 WJW in Cleveland)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theloo...his-girlfriend

[GGT]

Uhm, Dread, is your post in the right place?

MOTIVATIONS.

Love, money, fame, power, validation, admiration, acceptance, self-fulfillment, knowledge, pleasure, entertainment, justice, altruism......?

"A lot of people say we're living on love, like it's a bad thing," Jones said in the commercial. "How about you and I show the world what true love is all about?" He then pulled out a ring and proposed, and a few seconds later Jones emerged in the salon with a WJW camera crew, and dropped to his knees to propose in person.

What's it all about, Alfie?