Thoughts on thoughts, part 2

Philosophy post #2 comes from a quote I heard back in college basketball season last spring, from ESPN analyst Jay Bilas. I do not remember the exact context or intent of the quote, but it probably came after some coach or athlete posted some inappropriate, thoughtless or insensitive comment on their Twitter feed. Bilas said: “It’s OK to have an unexpressed thought every now and again.’’ Amen to that, brother.

Of course, this post – and perhaps, even this very blog itself! – flies in the faces of that quote. Last year, I had 388 posts on this blog. This year, which is rapidly coming to a close, I am around the same number and probably will exceed it slightly. So basically, most of my thoughts do not go unexpressed. However, unlike Twitter and other social media, it could be argued that a blog post like this takes a bit more thought processing time – debatable, but generally my posts exceed 140 characters and generally I will let them sit for a short time and perhaps even rewrite them before posting them.

But again, Bilas has a point. The current Social Media Generation has no problem living their entire lives in cyber-public. In fact, such behavior is embraced. I’m not saying it’s entirely a bad thing. Twitter and Facebook are excellent sources for breaking news for the media, and they can be a veritable gold mine for leads in criminal investigations. But do we really need to know what is going on in everybody’s life, every minute of the day? Maybe my opinion on this topic will change if and when I get an iPhone and start a Twitter or Tumblr account …