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Episode 12: Social Media - The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
28 Plays2 months ago
On this episode, the guys discuss the pros and cons of social media and the impact it has on our day to day lives.
Good Morning, Gents! This is a podcast hosted by four Marine Corps veterans with the goal of uplifting men to be the best version of ourselves. In an age of high rates of suicide and depression, especially in the male population, we are taking a stand. This is a place that will cover all of the challenges and realities that we face in the current world, and how we can break down barriers to betterment for ourselves, our families, and the world.
A tragic suicide of our friend sparked an idea and experiment for us as we rekindled our friendship: A group text where we say "Good Morning" to each other every single day, and continue the conversation about what is going on in our lives, be there for one another, and spread positivity and reassurance. Men bear so much weight of responsibility in society that it is hard for men to have an outlet to express themselves. This has attributed to the vast number of suicides in the male population. We aim to cut those numbers down with this podcast. Between the discussions our hosts will talk about, and the guests we bring onto the show, we invite you to join us on this journey towards self-betterment for all.
Email: Goodmorninggentspd@gmail.com
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Transcript
Littlefoot's Absence Clarified
00:00:08
Speaker
Good morning, gents.
00:00:13
Speaker
All right. Good morning, gents. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. mor Brando, Mac, it's good to see your shiny faces. Littlefoot is not with us this week. Unfortunately, he is working. big ah and For all you pessimistic folk out there, you thought I was going to say he died.
00:00:32
Speaker
Boo on you. He is alive and well, waxing the firehouse pole. He's pulling that hose. i can't respond right That's right. said wow That's right. he's gonna he's A little bit about us is Mendelsohn or Tyler is our chief editor, so he's going to have to listen to us rag on him this episode while he edits.
00:00:54
Speaker
So you guys laugh at every joke. I will. He's our chief editor by default, too, because none of us are smart enough to fucking do it.
00:01:05
Speaker
Absolutely. All right.
Weekend Activities & Weather Talk
00:01:08
Speaker
How was the week, guys? Dude, we went through the weekend. We went a week and a weekend. It's busy. at It was good, though. Yeah, there is.
00:01:16
Speaker
Yeah. Birthday parties to be had, activities to be done, all sorts of stuff this weekend. It's warm, finally. I know. I got to 80 here. T-shirts again. oh and tank tops. Sun's out Guns out.
00:01:30
Speaker
Freedom. We're looking at another snowstorm here Wednesday. Oh my no. Same. Same. We're going to be in one Wednesday too, Brando. No, you live in my health.
00:01:40
Speaker
It's 80 degrees today, but we expect snow on Wednesday. You live in my health. You get on that new snow, Bill, yeah. So last one week. want a tan. Last week we talked about dating.
00:01:53
Speaker
Anybody get out on some dates this week? Nope. ah Yeah, actually I had a lunch date with my wife today. Boom, there it is. There it is. Do have afternoon delight with it? No, with the baby on board. She's got that gestational narcolepsy right now, so it's nap time when we got home.
00:02:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:14
Speaker
That's good, man. That's good.
Exploring Social Media: Pros and Cons
00:02:16
Speaker
All right. So this week, we're going to talk about a topic that ah touches every person on the face of the earth right now, it seems like.
00:02:25
Speaker
Social media. Pros, cons, goods, bads, personal feelings, our uneducated opinions, and our unfiltered advice. I don't care what you think, but this is our opinion. So where do we want to start?
00:02:39
Speaker
Want to start with the good stuff or the bad stuff? throw with the good stuff I think the bad stuff is so... think people focus so much on the bad stuff. Why is it so evil? like People forget like social media is a tool.
00:02:50
Speaker
that so so when we decided on When we decided on this topic, I kind of put together some thoughts. like I have a a huge list of pros, and I've got a... I've got a shorter list of cons, if i'm going to be honest. And and really, i I do want to talk about some of the bad stuff.
00:03:07
Speaker
And it's not necessarily like doom and gloom that it's evil. um So I just maybe let's let's let's try and focus on the positive for the most of this episode. Let's just knock the the bad stuff out real quick.
00:03:19
Speaker
Yeah. ah Yeah.
Social Media's Societal Impact
00:03:21
Speaker
just i mean, the bad stuff is the bad stuff and everybody knows the bad stuff. But I think we forget like, I think we forget how much it influences our lives. Even if we fight it, it's going to be there.
00:03:31
Speaker
Yeah. It's always listening. So, so my big bad takeaway, whether you want to go down, and there's a thousand different tangents you can go down. Like there's moral degradation of society. There's,
00:03:43
Speaker
you know, immoral behavior on social media, et cetera. That's not the route I'm going. My route is more from ah a society as a whole. What I don't like that social media has done is it's created our ah a larger divide amongst us as a, as a people and in any nation, it doesn't matter what nation you pick it.
00:04:02
Speaker
And there's there's a left and a right side of political lining. And because of social media, more people are polarized and and and get their opinions out there. And then friends that used to be friends are now fighting online over some dumb stuff, dude.
00:04:14
Speaker
Some dumb stuff. Because if we're being real, there's not a good politician in the world. They're all crooks. Amen, brother. But, you know, it just – it's never, you know – When I first joined social media, it was MySpace, bro. You picked the top friends. You had a badass song on there. You threw a background on it. and It was whoever could pimp the MySpace the most. And it was all about sharing cool stuff and pictures.
00:04:36
Speaker
Now it's, you know, you post about this political movement, that political movement. you created It created a rift amongst people. I would love to start a campaign of, like, make MySpace great again. And, like, let's let's get back to top friends list and songs.
00:04:53
Speaker
Tom was number one, baby. That's right. That's right. Dude, I used to love getting on the internet and finding like those sweet hack codes that you could like change your backgrounds and like do different plugins.
00:05:04
Speaker
Myspace was so great. So great. You had background music. Yeah, dude. You could make a song. You're feeling a little emo and you throw on that that that stone sour. You're feeling a little hip hoppy and you throw on that that Nelly.
00:05:18
Speaker
Wasn't there one before MySpace? i was aim Aim was just Messenger before MySpace. That was instant Messenger. There was one called Bebo that I got into for a little bit. It was early ages in high school, man.
00:05:36
Speaker
That's Canadian MySpace. Yeah, that would have been. i would have been out of high school by the time you got in. AIM, AOL. You would get home, plug in. No, no, there's another one. I remember it from like my sophomore year. I can't remember the name of it.
00:05:51
Speaker
That was not MySpace. It was right before MySpace. We'll have to do a deep dive on like the social media. i don't know It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. and i'd have to agree with you though, man. Like social media is definitely, for no serious but i got it.
00:06:09
Speaker
drove a wedge between people. and ah in ah In a negative way, you know, like you could sit there and be face to face with somebody and you'd be fine. You could talk with them. you could share You could have a great time with them. But then you get on like social media or something, you post something they don't like and they're at your throat and you see in person again and you're fine.
00:06:25
Speaker
Like, yeah. Well, we're going to start with the negative stuff completely opposite of what we just said we were going to do. That was it. No, we're going to knock out the negatives. Just get them over with and let people listen to the good shit after. I think my bad thing, my thing about is it creates such a fake life. Like, it makes everybody so jealous of somebody else's life. Like, it brings out that immortal, like,
00:06:48
Speaker
keeping up with the jones is when you're like dude not everybody's life is that damn perfect the sun doesn't hit everyone fucking perfect like no not you don't need to live your life to impress others and i feel like social media just does that and i'm like that's just i don't need to impress the world like all if i have you on my social media we're probably friends and i'll show you what my life is like yeah i'm not I'll share the good stuff, but I'm not going to share the bad or the negative, but like I'm not trying to change shit to make it look awesome. like This is what we're doing now.
00:07:25
Speaker
My wife and I had a great conversation about that because you know this is kind of like a good and a bad thing because it's like we keep in touch over social media and like it's the four of us. We're in the military together. We all live ah all over the United States and During the timeframe where we weren't talking, all we'd see is like, oh, there's his kids, there's his wife and kids, and they're they're doing great, they're doing fine, but you don't know what's going on in their lives.
00:07:49
Speaker
Yeah. So like reaching out to these people deeper than just the superficial like, oh, I'm I'm Facebook happy letter like Instagram. the far People being like, oh, yeah, that's my friend.
00:08:01
Speaker
That's your friend. What you've met like twice and now your social media friends. So you you feel like you guys are friends because you see their posts or their stories or whatever is out there like it's not a friend. That's an acquaintance.
00:08:13
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. All right. I've got nothing else negative. Yeah, I feel more might come up, but not nothing like groundbreaking. Yeah, ain't got much either in the negative side.
00:08:26
Speaker
It's dangerous. Everyone knows that. I was about to say, it's nothing that hasn't been beat to death on every other podcast or news outlet. You know what i mean? like Everybody knows the the downfalls of social media.
00:08:39
Speaker
so I guess this is a little swimming upstream or you know against the current, but let's let's let's dive in on positives.
Reconnecting Through Social Media
00:08:46
Speaker
Dude, the connection. the The ability to not lose touch.
00:08:51
Speaker
yeah ah yeah ah the The ability to keep connection by finding people, like being able to navigate the networks and be like, ah, remember their first name was whatever, but I wonder what their last name, like, I'm sure they have a different last name now, like in navigating,
00:09:07
Speaker
whether you go back to your old schools, old job places, go through other friends, like people can now find each other so much easier. And I think it's helping rekindle friendships or maintain friendships.
00:09:21
Speaker
I'll give you a positive story about a relationship via social media. Um, you guys all know, like my, the the man that raised me is not my biological father, right? Like he's, he's, he's just not right. it His name's not my birth certificate, but we don't share Yeah.
00:09:36
Speaker
yeah Um, My biological father I've never talked to or anything like that. He's actually a retired sergeant major. um But he has another daughter who's just a couple years younger than me, like a year and a half.
00:09:48
Speaker
She reached out to me about 16 months ago on Facebook. And we've chatted off and on since then. But it's been nice to like get to know her and like find out about like her side of the family, her like upbringing. And then like through her, I've connected with an aunt.
00:10:06
Speaker
I've connected like it's just been pretty cool. And like it was all via Facebook. It wasn't via, you know, 23andMe or via a phone book or a text message. It was, you know, we kind of knew each other's names, but we'd never talked. And one of us extended the branch. She did prior to me. So like, I'm grateful she did that. But like, but it was just, like it's been a cool experience all because of social media.
00:10:29
Speaker
very awesome, man. Like all the people you think about it, like my dad has half brothers and sisters in Philadelphia, even, you know, but I'm sure they could reach out if they were using MySpace or Facebook, you know?
00:10:42
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And Brandon, you you touched on something, being able to just kind of watch from afar your friends and and kind of staying in tune with their life, but not being massively involved. Like sometimes that's okay.
00:10:57
Speaker
You know, sometimes. Oh, for sure. You know, sometimes some people are just that's like a like here shows you that, hey, dude, you're killing it. Like, I know you got a lot going on, but I'm not going to stop and bother you.
00:11:09
Speaker
But I'm watching and you're killing. Yeah, I like keeping tabs on my friends sometimes. and it It's nice that I can drop the like or the yeah you know the thumbs up or the heart or the care ah because I'm a terrible person at reaching out to somebody. like I am terrible at it. I will think about you every day for a week straight, but I'll never call you I'll never text you.
00:11:29
Speaker
And that's just a terrible trait that I have. Yeah, if I text you daily, if I text you once within like a month, you probably mean something to me. That's how, I mean, my brothers,
00:11:40
Speaker
that's that's how i mean my brothers Maybe once a week. My older brother, not so much because we're so busy. um My little brother and i we always find something to text or share.
00:11:53
Speaker
Usually, like, social media is great because you find those memes that you can just share and fucking send your dark humor to somebody else that enjoys your dark humor as well. Slightly or mostly inappropriate all the time.
00:12:06
Speaker
It's like my friend and I, he gives me a good morning reel. It's not a good morning text. I know i'm going to see him at the gym, but it's a good morning reel every morning when he wakes up. ah This just lets me know he's thinking about me.
00:12:17
Speaker
Mac, when we were brainstorming this, you had you had some other things you liked about social media, travel and shit like that. What else you got? Man, guys are going ask me to remember. I told one of you guys to take notes. I was walking the dog when my brain was firing and the sun was coming up.
00:12:31
Speaker
My brain was cooking that morning. And then I got home, took cold shower, and my brain shut the fuck off. So I'll get us started in it, but discovery. Discovery of things, places, and whatever it may be.
00:12:44
Speaker
That's where I was going with travel, man. like I follow like a South American page because one of my goals is to explore as much of South America as I can. And so like you it just through social media, you are able to see places that you would have never seen via like we were growing up. We had like the Discovery Channel you could watch a National Geographic. You can watch. like Oh, well, everybody sees those.
00:13:11
Speaker
And not that everybody doesn't see these on social media, but it's more like it's just different places that it is easier to see what is out there in the world and go, i want to go there.
00:13:21
Speaker
and There are places in South America I've never even seen before, but because I follow these pages, you get these, hey these is this waterfall is blah, blah, blah. or that like You just get these different points that you can save and be like, I want to go there.
00:13:35
Speaker
I want to go there. or the the ancient ruins that are in the in Europe, like as far as like medieval shit. like A lot of that stuff you're not gonna know about it unless A, you've been there a couple times, or B, you're a local. It almost helps take out multiple trips.
00:13:51
Speaker
You go on one trip and you see the main stuff, then you're there, and you run into other tourists, and you're yeah, yeah, yeah, this is second time here, we're trying to see this now, this, this, this. Instead of doing it that way, you got social media, you can kind of like explore these places before you go and you can find these places that aren't the main spots that you be like, I want to go there.
00:14:11
Speaker
I want to see that. So instead of having to take four trips to one fucking country and spend thousands of dollars and half your life trying to see one fucking country, you can kind of see more and get more ideas or like maybe something pops up in a country you've never seen before. Like I have no, like I would have never known it's cheaper to take a ski trip to fucking Europe than it is to Colorado without social I would just assumed Colorado's closer. Let me me go there and ski.
00:14:36
Speaker
No, it's cheap as shit once you take the flight to Europe. Like I would have never known something like that. But, and that's, that's where I was going with that discovery with exploration and travel. Like you, so many more things have been explored and posted about that. You would never know 30 years ago, unless you had been there or knew somebody that had been there.
00:15:00
Speaker
I like the best part about that is, too, is like you said, it gets you off the beaten path. It's not like, oh, we're going to see Stonehenge. But then you got this, like, don't know, a thousand year old fence that's still standing between two neighbors feuding or something like that, you know?
00:15:12
Speaker
Yeah. Off the wall thing like. You've never seen a tour book or a guide book or. The random facts. Like, it's just like, I think it's cool. Like, I think that, that itself to let you see what all is in the world.
00:15:30
Speaker
um for sure, dude. I like that. I want to experience that. that's I use a lot of it for like the creative side, like building or what people are creating. yeah That's another thing I was going to go for.
00:15:41
Speaker
yeah but I like getting ideas. like We're about to um do like a tv wall like a nice tv wall and built ends and ship so like I joined this TV wall page on Facebook and it's just people posting their builds and like some things are like amazing. And I'm like, that's a really good idea. And it's like I wouldn't have thought of it. It's not hard, but I wouldn't have thought of it. so like Take a screenshot and keep rolling. So now I've got this. It's like Pinterest. You know, Pinterest is another one I like. It just tons of fucking ideas.
00:16:10
Speaker
it It's free ideas. It's people sharing. I don't care if you like you're posting it because you're like, look what I did. I'm badass. Cool. Thanks. You are badass. Thanks for the idea, though, because I'm going to use it now. that's like I used it a lot when we were when I was still living in North Carolina and started making a bunch of stuff out of pallets, man. Just getting bored and pallet creations and mean shoot dude i built like a fire pit out back with old stones just repurposing stuff learning the things and you know how much that stuff like 30 years ago 10 years ago 15 years ago it would have taken you trial and error trial and error just figure it out for yourself but now with everybody kindness with everybody so connected now you can get those the knowledge we have at our fingertips due to social media and everybody sharing their knowledge with people is is great like am i cute
00:16:58
Speaker
YouTube mechanic, YouTube, whatever it is, bro. you can you can You can YouTube how to code. You can YouTube how to use AI. You can YouTube how to change brake pads, how to how to install a French drain, how to... I don't know how to YouTube. I have you.
00:17:17
Speaker
I learned how to tile a floor because of this, man. Yep. Learned how to lay a wood floor because of him. That's so weird. i've done I've helped both of you guys with floors.
00:17:28
Speaker
yeah through That floor we put into that that old house raised the price of that house substantially. Brando, don't take this as an insult.
00:17:39
Speaker
I'd much rather help Mac on his. Yours sucked, bro. That was a lot of tile. That hurt. That was lot of tile, dude. that yeah Mine wasn't tile. was just planks.
00:17:51
Speaker
Yeah, it was wood. It was easy. Mine was planks. It was just tile. Yeah, he did the tile look like planks, bro. God. Laundry room, hallway, living room, dining room, hallway. like It was a lot, dude. It was more square footage than yours, and it was all tile. i was like, oh, my God.
00:18:14
Speaker
that oh Yeah, like like YouTube, dude. there's There's so many things I go to YouTube for. i mean, even just product reviews, man. Like, we are more educated as consumers due to social media, right? Like, you you can make an informed decision on how to spend your money based off of three YouTube videos, you know.
00:18:32
Speaker
and showing all the features of it and you know where its weak points are. it's just I don't know. i I know social media gets a lot of guff. That's why I didn't really want to hang on it on the the bad parts too long.
00:18:44
Speaker
But like man, for as much bad shit there is, there's so much good to it yeah du even Even this podcast, man, it's just...
The Power of Social Media in Content Distribution
00:18:53
Speaker
Social media. media We're we getting out through Spotify, Instagram.
00:18:58
Speaker
Four friends making the best that they can about it. I still can't believe people listen to us i think They might not listen to us this week after we we delayed output for a day.
00:19:10
Speaker
yeah Listen now. Sorry. We have real lives. Social media. Don't let it get to you. yeah yeah what What were other things that we had on that list for social media? The positive big thing for me, like my goal is to build a house.
00:19:27
Speaker
Like I, I hate looking at houses. I'd hate, I hate the idea of just shopping for another used house oh because going to end up having to do work to it. And I'm like, I'd rather just build what I want.
00:19:39
Speaker
And, but I'm not creative at all. Like my construction creativity is so damn flat. So like, dude, I will scroll through pages of houses on social media and just like, just to see like, what what are people doing? What's different? what's And I don't care what's in style. Like I look for what I like.
00:20:01
Speaker
And so, and people are so creative on how they lay designs and how things work. And like, it's so much easier with all that to be more creative than what you i mean some of us just aren't creative and we like picture books and that's what social media is it's a big ass picture book exactly color by numbers so you get it right Yeah, man.
00:20:26
Speaker
I think another weird spinoff from social media is it created a whole career path for some individuals, right? To be influencer, whether you like that title or not, but to to be an influencer, like these are people earning dollars based off of social media. Like that didn't exist in the 90s. Those jobs weren't there.
00:20:47
Speaker
And then you have the jobs that support the social media platform. So even as much as people, again, people rag on it. They're like, there's a, there's, thousands of jobs tied to social media. Like, like it's a, it's a positive in that sense too, that as far as like economic and socioeconomic like situation is like, you've got some people that absolutely changed their trajectory by making funny videos, right? Like they come from, you know, poverty to, you know, now they've got 3 million followers and they just built them a $500,000 house and they're, they're living life, right? Like it just,
00:21:22
Speaker
They're the ones showing all those cool travel places. That's right. Jerks. Jerks and their money influencers. Hey, social media has made people lots of money. got to give it to Like,
00:21:34
Speaker
Oh, thousand percent, dude. yeah I don't knock it off. Dude, like make your money doing your thing. Like that's awesome. That wasn't an option 20 years ago. And now you got people just like entrepreneur and killing it off
New Opportunities in the Social Media Era
00:21:48
Speaker
social media. And I'm like, that wasn't a job 20 years ago. It's awesome that people are hustling like that.
00:21:54
Speaker
Yo, I got it. I got a weird one for you. It's kind of along the negative space, but it's a positive. um And it's mass dissemination of information. Right. There was no better reporting out of like the initial months of Ukraine than TikTok.
00:22:09
Speaker
Oh, yeah. There more. There was more news flow. There was more actual information from frontline. I'm going use quotes here. the The listeners can't see it, but frontline reporters in quotes.
00:22:20
Speaker
Right. But it's average. It's just normal human beings live streaming or putting out a video of like, hey, this is what we're seeing and this is what's happening. That is uncensored. It's. It's more real, right? It's it it's it's it's true news.
00:22:33
Speaker
And I just remember watching the initial couple of months via TikToks and it's just it was wild to see war reported on in such a manner. Now you pivot that to anything, dude.
00:22:47
Speaker
That big storm we just had this weekend, right? that There was pileups in Kansas, tornadoes in Mississippi, or the hurricane that hit North Carolina. The ability to report out that information and get it to people who are wanting to help or can help is so powerful nowadays that it just didn't exist, right?
00:23:05
Speaker
Dude, it's so crazy you say that. like I think about like Vietnam is like the first war that was ever covered on like actual video footage. And then Ukraine's being covered by dude's cell phone in a trench like on the front line.
00:23:21
Speaker
but It just blows my mind. like and But people have got kind of so desensitized to that kind of stuff too. like ah it's It's another war. Look at it. like But you're right. like The best news footage you get is from people in the scene at the time.
00:23:35
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. it's ah It's wild times. it's ah But I don't don't necessarily think it's all negative. Oh, no. I just wish I could utilize it a little bit more to my advantage than just watching funny reels of like cats or people going fast on motorcycles, you know?
00:23:49
Speaker
Well, let's talk about that. Dopamine dumps, bro. I mean, how many how many days, ah like, you hit a bad day and, like, you just need to watch a funny cat video or a good fucking motivational David Goggins yelling at you motivat you video, you know what I mean? like Like, yeah there's a lot of things you can find out there that can change the path of your day.
00:24:10
Speaker
um Kind of pull you out of that little depressed mood you're in or whatever, you know, and it's like, watch a couple videos. Just don't get stuck in it. That's the problem that happens. Yeah. You might get stuck there and you look up and it's like, oh, the sun went down. What the heck?
00:24:23
Speaker
Stuck in the vortex. What else we got? What else we got? I got distracted. He's on social media. No. I'm dealing with... Enough said. Yeah.
00:24:35
Speaker
Enough said there. You guys keep going. I'm listening, sort of. You know, do you guys, so on this, on the topic of actually talking to somebody like over the phone, how often you do use do you use regular texting anymore? Or is it like Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Instagram?
00:24:52
Speaker
Um, so that's good. Groups, groups. so I run through Facebook, man. Like I've got friend groups through Facebook that are they're much easier. Our friend group, we're all, we're all still on text messaging.
00:25:03
Speaker
Um, but like I've got some work friend groups that it's Facebook's the easiest manner because of, um well I'm going to get a dude. I'm going get us some people that don't want to listen here with this next comment because of communist iPhones, text messages don't go from Android very well.
00:25:20
Speaker
No, not at all. I try to get them out to you guys. Trust me, i am texting you. They just come in a couple hours later. Yeah. So I do a lot of a lot of connect in that way.
00:25:31
Speaker
And then like my parents have iPhones and I've got an Android. So like. when the kids want to video chat with grandma and grandpa, like we run through Facebook messenger because it has to, it it's, it's the only median between the two different devices that runs a clear video. Like, I mean, you could use Snapchat, but I don't have a Snapchat.
00:25:49
Speaker
So ah you don't want your messages to disappear. saved them all. I bet you do. I bet you do. Dude. I went back. I haven't had it for like a year or two.
00:26:00
Speaker
And then i was Avery had it. And so I went back to it and I created it and I was like, what is going on here? It's so much different than it was that I was like, yeah, I'm deleting this.
00:26:11
Speaker
I have no need for this. don't need snaps. I don't want snaps. Again, it's just another form of people being like, look how great my life is. I don't need it. just like the filters.
00:26:23
Speaker
I bet you do. I bet you do. I got a running streak with some friends at work and stuff. It's like I try to catch people when they're not looking, and I'm really good at it.
00:26:34
Speaker
ah Really good at it. and so And I don't share them with the world. I just share it with the person I'm capturing on the photograph. But... You know, that's that's my dopamine fix. But I got i got some people that'll send me, they they'll only send me certain things through like Instagram and then they'll message me on Snapchat or they'll... Oh, the same conversation in three different worlds. Yes, different platforms. And it's like, what? i get you I'm really old school, man. Like I love social media, but I'm a Facebook. I'm a dinosaur compared to from what my kid calls me. She's like, Facebook's for old people, dad. I'm like, dude, I'm 33. Like...
00:27:12
Speaker
thirty three like I'm not. like I don't even have Facebook. Yeah, dude. I run Facebook almost exclusively. i just i just turned my snap or not my snap my ah Instagram back on for but the podcast so I can help promote it.
00:27:25
Speaker
That was it. i' have facebook I don't have Facebook. I have one. I only have Instagram. That's it. i Keep going. I deleted TikTok before the the fall of TikTok there for a little bit and in the in the States. And then now you can get it back.
00:27:40
Speaker
i have I never had the Tiki-Taki, bro. i never had the Tiki-Taki. I can tell you right now, I do have it back. And the best thing about it for you, Mac, is that when I look at like barn dominiums for building, they actually lay out all the blueprints and floor plans on there.
00:27:56
Speaker
They'll show you the house. They'll show you the blueprint. yeah Screenshot it fast enough you get the dimension. Yeah. That's what the Instagram is for, man. I just swipe it to the right and I get the blueprints.
00:28:07
Speaker
There you go. Oh, man. Yeah, no. that's Another thing I get from social media weather, dude. There seems to be more accurate like warning for weather systems coming out of like my Facebook feed than my weather app.
00:28:22
Speaker
Really? Really? like I follow the local weather. I get the National Weather Service, so the NWS. I follow their local. But like I follow like two or three like freelance meteorologists. yeah they're just They're just killing it, dude. They they like post like very detailed, like very accurate stuff. And I'm like, why why why do I have fake weather on the TV when I got real weather on my Facebook? Yeah.
00:28:47
Speaker
You know what like about social media, which is strange? Like, everybody's a social media lawyer, right? And they're normally wrong. But when I was working the road, there were a lot of, like, like street cop training is one. And there, there is just very quick, down, dirty, simple, like, um, case law things that like you could, you listen to a two minute long video and you had a pretty clear, quick and easy understanding of what that case law was. And like, I used to use it.
00:29:17
Speaker
got this followed all those pages when I was working the road and I, it, There were a lot of take times where I'd like, hold on. I remember just somewhere in the ether hearing that. Let me, that is, that is something. Let me Google real quick.
00:29:31
Speaker
And it was just like, things like that, like actually helped or like traffic stops or approaching people or talking to people. Like there's those little 20 second clips or whatever it was that like some old,
00:29:46
Speaker
dude that had been on the road for 20 years just shared that he liked to do. Like, it would pop in your head and be like, that really does work. And would try it and be like, holy shit, it did work. Alright, cool. Like, it was just a way to pass knowledge amongst the professionals without, like,
00:30:01
Speaker
having to know the guy he just wanted the best for other cops out there and he was like hey this is something and so like there were a lot of times when i worked the road that i followed all those pages and you saw shit like that also love watching police pursuits because they're fucking awesome and i love watching bad guys getting spun in the trees because play stupid games win stupid ass fucking prizes so I used to watch one it was like a lawyer reacts and it was like a three, like a two minute clip or something like that on YouTube.
00:30:29
Speaker
And it's pretty cool to get that insight and stuff. Cause I did a lot too, when I was working yeah EMS, like what can I do or what can I do with like certain consents? And yeah, it definitely helped you out in a pickle. That's for sure. Yeah. like the A lot of case law, man. It was good. Like you scroll through it and be like, yeah, I've never read that before. And like you listened to the video real quick and it was like just ah this random reminder out of nowhere where you're like, right, cool.
00:30:53
Speaker
I can't treat this person like this, but I can do it like this. Or like when people share funny stories, you're like, I've been there. I've been, i know what he's going through. Like this shit's funny. Like, you know, like, don't know. Like it's a good way for professionals to just share knowledge, to pass free knowledge on to anybody else that might be interested in that.
00:31:12
Speaker
And I think that's a, that's a, that's a huge benefit to society to make professionals more professional. So do you think that social media would eventually replace death by PowerPoint?
00:31:23
Speaker
No.
Traditional Training vs. Social Media
00:31:24
Speaker
No, we still need to have that. Death by PowerPoint is a check in the box. You cannot sue your company if they can tell them they had a full 60 minutes of training.
00:31:34
Speaker
does It doesn't matter if they put one word on every screenshot. When it comes to you not following whatever that bullshit policy is and you get hurt or whatever it is at work, when that punishment comes around, they can go,
00:31:48
Speaker
ah Well, you sat in training. So that and that's why a lot of training is going to like online videos that you have to sit and watch. It's not PowerPoint. You're whatever. And it's just like, why do I have to do this? It is simply to protect the entity you are for.
00:32:04
Speaker
It is not that. Like it's for your benefit. Dude, no one's paying a freaking attention. You're scrolling to the end and you're clicking through to tell you pass. If you take the test more than once, thank God, because y all you're doing is reading the same questions over and over.
00:32:17
Speaker
same thing you did in the Marine Corps. Just don't share social security numbers and don't share like personal information and you'll be fine. Loose lips sink ships. the Operation Purple Dragon. I prefer the tight lips and then you can work your way in there.
00:32:34
Speaker
That's where we need that like radio edit voice to come in.
00:32:41
Speaker
So you started going down a path. I was going to chime in, but I'll let you guys finish your thoughts there. You just got to jump in there, man. Just jump on that train and ride it.
00:32:52
Speaker
Professional network. Any of you guys dabble in LinkedIn? Yes. No. Yeah. I've, I've seen some people like be able to find jobs and like network outside of their career and up through LinkedIn.
00:33:05
Speaker
Absolutely. There's some serious money and in LinkedIn if you know how to use it and and finding jobs for people. A good friend of mine, she, she started out that way and she does very well for herself.
00:33:17
Speaker
Just being a job hunter, like ah ah like a headhunter, like bridging. yep Yep. I'll tell you one thing that I can't stand about social media. As far as like we're talking about jobs and sharing knowledge and um professionals and help like just sharing information that can make people better.
00:33:35
Speaker
When people share fitness advice, then I'm like, that that's fucking dangerous. Yeah. Like, you're not, you're, you're literally, you have a 12 pack of abs and it ain't because you're doing that.
00:33:48
Speaker
It is there are other things that are working behind the scenes. You're just trying to sell this one fucking idea. And it's like, that's, you're going to fucking kill somebody like that shit. I can't stand. it's like, look at me. I'm fucking, I'm awesome. man You do this. You'd be great. I'm like, no, they're going to fucking ah hurt themselves.
00:34:07
Speaker
I was waiting for you to get on that. who I who was so waiting for the fitness stints. I was going to let him bring it up. You're going to take your clothes off and fucking show your body off. like I don't fucking care. like um I don't like fucking go for it, dude. If you are fit and you know what you're doing, share it share the knowledge. If you know what you're doing,
00:34:29
Speaker
And you, i mean, I just, i fear for when these people, when people get into fitness and they're like, I want to do what that guy does. And they like do these workouts. I'm like, you got to build up to those.
00:34:43
Speaker
You got to build up. You can't just be going in there doing crazy shit. And like, I also like, I hate the fact that like most people, they see these beautiful women on there who are fit in their abs and their fake tits and the dudes in there with their 12 abs and all the veins.
00:35:02
Speaker
Those photos are fucking posed. youre eat Most of those people who are that fit looking, they set themselves up days in advance for those photo shoots because they know they're going to take those photos.
00:35:16
Speaker
Very rarely is somebody always that cut up. I can fucking spend three days and manipulate my body to a point where I can walk around and have all six abs very visible and separated.
00:35:30
Speaker
I know how to do that to myself. but that's not how I can walk around daily. Like I don't live a diet like that. Like that is such a strict diet. The whole very few of those people on there are doing that. They're just taking all those photos when they look like it and then posting them out throughout the however many months or whatever.
00:35:46
Speaker
And that's fine. Like I'm happy they can do that, but fuck man, that's dangerous for people. And that gets people hurt. And like that, that's like, people are like, I gotta have these perfect abs and these perfect muscles. Like,
00:35:58
Speaker
Those people don' don't even normally, and I say normally because there are people out there that do it, so I'm not going to downplay that, but most of those people don't walk around like that all the time, and you would be slightly disappointed if you saw them in person, but they're never going to post what they look like day to day.
00:36:17
Speaker
no it's and you hit the nail on the head there too man but like people wanting to do these extreme workouts or these weird exercises and stuff like that it's like just stick to the basics until you get get some a base you know once you get a base then move up don't dude i don't post any of my workouts like you guys remember working out with me i'm dumbass in the gym i go against every rule that every doctor and body built like Dude, if it's a rule, I've probably broken it.
00:36:43
Speaker
But my words my base fitness level is well enough that I don't get hurt. So I don't fucking, it but I'm not going to post like, I'll go run two miles in 12 minutes and then lay down 125 pound dumbbells without warming up or stretching.
00:36:58
Speaker
I'll start pushing the weight. Don't fucking do that. That's fucking dumb. Way to flex on the listeners, you jerk. I got more weight money in one end and they got on the bar.
00:37:11
Speaker
Again, that's why I don't post it, though, because that's fucking stupid, and that would seriously hurt somebody. oh man. Absolutely. All right. What else we got?
00:37:24
Speaker
but ah what What closing and remarks do we have on social media? Closing remarks on social media.
Responsible Social Media Usage
00:37:29
Speaker
It's a good tool. It's exactly what you treat as a tool. Don't utilize it as a lifestyle. or I mean, unless you're an influencer, of course. But even if you hold your life around it have a separate life, man.
00:37:42
Speaker
Yeah, but like utilize the tool for what it is. Just like every other tool, put it back on the shelf when you're not using it. be Responsible. Yeah. Being responsible.
00:37:53
Speaker
And if you and nothing is wrong with your life to the point that you got to make it look so much better on social media. It's your life. It's a wonderful life. It's yours. Share what's yours. Don't fucking dress it up so you might get someone's fucking approval.
00:38:09
Speaker
If they don't approve your life as it is, fuck them. Ooh, hot take for the young listeners. Hot take. Whatever you put out there lives forever. Whether you think it gets deleted or not, if anybody wants to search your past, they can find it.
00:38:24
Speaker
So be careful of what be careful of what you post. So making your make your decisions on political careers now, not after you post it, all right? not Today's day and age isn't as lucky as our day and age when we were in college. God, thank God. Holy shit. if we would have like phones that we have now, when I was in college.
00:38:43
Speaker
Whoops. Just the phones we have now when I got in the Marine Corps. Yeah, dude. God, I feel bad for kids these days. Like as fast as shit hits the airways, like you can't fuck up once without somebody putting that shit out there and then laughing about it. it's Like dudey just everybody fucks up. Why we got to put it out there?
00:39:01
Speaker
Absolutely. I'd say that's the biggest con right there is that you can't learn life without it being blasted out there or something like that. You know, like we had the opportunity to make mistakes. We had the opportunity to be the dumb ass or the, you know, and and and live through that and learn it and not be scarred or marred by it for the rest of your life.
00:39:21
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Like the opportunities and du maybe maybe that's a benefit too. Like playing devil's advocate, looking at statistics and like teenage sex is going down, drinking's going down, drug use is going down.
00:39:37
Speaker
Now granted like cyber bullying and shit like that is going up. Suicides are going up. So somewhere we're fucking up, but like all the dumb shit we used to do is going down. that's a point.
00:39:49
Speaker
And I think it's because you can't get away with shit anymore. All it is is like one person posting that and everybody's on it. And it's like, what'd you post? The WeWos are coming for you posting.
00:40:01
Speaker
Oh, no, that's the fire department. Somewhere up the hill, they go probably twice a day. Lights and sirens, fire department up there. It's not an old folks home either. It's a neighborhood neighborhood.
00:40:13
Speaker
And three other apartment complexes. That's it. And they're nice apartment complexes. Like they're not old folks homes, but they're always going up there. They're already one. Huh?
00:40:24
Speaker
I said they're going priority too. yeah I've never seen them drive not priority up there. I'm like, where you guys going? Like I've been up there a lot. And every time I was up there, there was nothing like major happening.
00:40:37
Speaker
So you got anything on this there, Caleb? Yeah, man, I think just ah apply social media to your life with responsible ah responsibility, right? Don't let it consume your life.
00:40:49
Speaker
Put parameters in place that allow you to make sure that you you don't pour into it more than you should or, you know, take it for more than what it is at face value.
00:40:59
Speaker
Use it as a tool and kind of just keep true to who do you are. Don't let it become who you are. and yeah With that said, quirky closeout. Oh, my God.
00:41:11
Speaker
It's the only reason I get on here. see I do all the work just to get to the climax of the quirky closeout. Well, this one's going to be fun. This one's going super fun. Slippery. I love super slippery.
00:41:25
Speaker
And fun. All right. And fun.
00:41:29
Speaker
If you could have any superpower, what would it be and would you or how would you use it for good? I got to keep you guys in the green. Oh, you to keep us in the green.
00:41:40
Speaker
yeah It could go dark. Oh, man. like but What superpower and what good would you use it for? Could you do like making people disappear?
00:41:51
Speaker
be like We're talking go into an island for a permanent va like talking like Thanos style, man. Snap of the finger, that person. Ugh. like I'm not thinking like people you don't like, right? I'm talking for like the good of the people, like sex offenders, murders. Like, you know, instead of that person going to jail and costing everyone taxpayer money, you could just be like, that's...
00:42:13
Speaker
that go that's a high take I'll take it. I'll take it. I'll take it. yeah Because my other superpowers are super strong, man, and I don't fucking know what I would do with that for good. What about you, Brando?
00:42:26
Speaker
That's the police. That was not the fire department. That was a blue light. Yeah, those are blue. don't know. I almost want the power of healing. i've always I like helping people. That's why I like being EMT. you know i like I like watching people get better.
00:42:39
Speaker
that's our Our superpowers just coincided with our previous jobs. and They did, didn't they? That's fucking funny. Without even thinking about it. Now, for the listeners, we didn't know this was going to be the question.
00:42:53
Speaker
so You've heard everything we've heard. and Both our answers coincided with our previous jobs. So mine doesn't really coincide with ah with a profession, at least not my profession.
00:43:07
Speaker
but i want like any trooper I would want like extreme intelligence so I could like solve humanity's problems. right like Here's the cure for cancer. here's here's ah Here's how to balance the budget for the entire country and make us all richer. Right? So I like that.
00:43:23
Speaker
But if you're curing cancer, like i see diseases, they suck, right? Like people might not like this, but diseases and things like that, I've always seen as a way to keep humanity balanced and evened out, right? Like all we do is fight against death.
00:43:38
Speaker
If you find the cure to all that, you're curing death, except by old age, humanity kind of goes hey overpopulated. like we're we're In we are animals that need to be conservationed.
00:43:53
Speaker
We need to be cold. And I don't disagree. I don't disagree. But see, my extreme intelligence then like separates the population, gets better at farming, and creates a Mars colony. right yeah i just keep going.
00:44:06
Speaker
We only have so much Earth, though. Like, there are limits. Mars colony. Mars colony. Okay. All right. I'll take it. I just keep going. We'll take it, man?
00:44:18
Speaker
so Don't get me wrong. You brought up a good point. I will be exhausted because every problem I solve will probably create a new problem. Exactly. Every – yeah. You would have to have no cortisol. That'd be another that be another superpower of yours. I have no cortisol, no stress.
00:44:32
Speaker
So Caleb is curing cancer and keeping people alive. Branding is keeping people alive. And I'm over here like, dude, you fuck up and go against the population. ah You're gone.
00:44:43
Speaker
We'll see. Therefore, we have will have the balance. Later, dudes. we We have the balance right there between the superpowers. You're making them disappear. We're keeping the good ones here, man. like Crazy.
00:44:55
Speaker
Did we just create a God complex on accident? I think we did.
00:45:01
Speaker
Maybe we shouldn't have superpowers. We have podcast. We don't have superpowers. yeah yeah I'll find us an easier quirky next week. That one got deep.
00:45:12
Speaker
All right, guys. Maybe it has to be a whole episode. We could probably do that. Dude, just nerding out. Yeah. Just nerding out. Yeah. like Well, we got to have Tyler for that. For for the listeners, our our beloved Tyler is a Comic-Con nerd.
00:45:30
Speaker
So we cannot go down that rabbit hole without the little guy. Can that be our next episode? I mean, I don't see why not. I think it'd be fun. That's a fun. Let's just go down superhero BS and rabbit hole.
00:45:42
Speaker
Yes. deal All right. Next. I'm not here next week. Damn it. Ooh. Ooh. Yeah, i don't know. TBD on date. TBD on date. TBD. Might be a Monday thing. All right, boys. All right. It's been real. It's been good. It's been real good.
00:45:56
Speaker
Later, listeners. Goodbye, y'all.
00:46:06
Speaker
Jeff.