One of the bloggers for Tripleblaze.com, jpmmcbride, just published an article titled, "3 Reasons Social Media Ruins the Outdoors." As you are probably aware, social media is a topic that I am quite passionate about and spend a lot of time thinking about. Here was my response to John:


Hey John, thanks for the great post! This is an interesting question, and I think it’s an important discussion to have. However, I disagree with you on most of your points.

For points #1 and #3, I think it depends largely on the attitude of the people posting and viewing on social media. Posting your adventures doesn’t have to be narcissistic, and viewing others’ adventures doesn’t have to create jealousy and anger. Why the heck can’t we just be happy for one another? Also, I’ve found that generally, what goes around comes around: just because I see a Facebook “friend” posting photos while skiing massive peaks in Alaska, BC, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, Utah, and everywhere that I might have missed in between doesn’t mean I need to be jealous of him. I just enjoy getting to see cool photos from his experiences… it definitely beats baby photos and crappy memes!

Several months ago Relevant Magazine published an article that made some of the same arguments that you made. I wrote a response that I think responds well to some of the points that you brought up, and I posted it here: http://www.cranialcollision.com/2013/06/instagram-celebrating-beautiful-moments.html

The short version is, I don’t see any reason why we can’t use social media to celebrate the beautiful moments in life. There are so many dull, boring moments, downright dirty, disgusting moments, so many instances of evil and abuse and greed and depression in this world, why can’t we enjoy the beauty of God’s creation? I think the desire to share those moments of beauty with the world with whatever means we have at our disposal is a natural and good tendency, not a bad one.

Now, point #2 is something that I’ve struggled with. In the past, I held strongly to the opinion that you expressed here… but now, when I want to go back and check out photos from those journeys in an attempt to relive them, I don’t have any to look at! While being obsessed with taking photos and capturing the moment can often times ruin the purity of the experience, as I mentioned above I think a desire to capture and share that moment can be natural and good.

My solution to point #2 has been to shoot photos sometimes, but not all of the time. Since shooting photos and writing about my mountain bike experiences is my job, spending time capturing the ride is just a fact of life for me. It puts food on the table. However, I try to look for opportunities to NOT stand around shooting photos for an hour. For instance, I rarely shoot photos on my regular after work rides on my local trails. I ride them all the time and cover them regularly, so I don’t need to really capture that experience every single time. Also, I personally try to avoid taking photos of sports that I’m not getting paid to participate in or document. Right now, that’s skiing for me. When I’m skiing, I can just enjoy the experience and revel in it.

On the flip side, sometimes I still want to capture and share those experiences for the reasons I mentioned above. And to be honest, the rise of the smartphone has made it quicker and less intrusive than ever to grab a few snapshots. But even if I DO grab a few quick shots, spending maybe 30 seconds to do so, I try not to post those photos until I’ve returned home and am back in front of the computer. Taking a snapshot takes a second, but crafting a caption, posting to Facebook, and waiting for the photo to upload via a weak 3G signal takes a lot longer. So, I encourage you to just shoot some shots, and post ‘em later!

Like I said at the beginning, I think this is a great article that should trigger a very interesting and useful discussion. I think it’s important that we think about how and why we use social media, and that we examine its influence in our lives. As you concluded, “Social media is a tool. And just like any other tool, it can be used to create something beautiful or destroy something that was once precious.”

I’ve been hearing a lot of negative talk swirling around the interwebs lately about the basic premise of the social media platform Instagram. Despite the fact that Instagram’s user base is growing in leaps and bounds while some other platforms, such as Facebook, are declining, Instagram still hasn’t reached nearly the massive size that Facebook has. Consequently, how Instagram is used, or better put, how it should be used, is still up in the air.

As a social media professional, I am constantly using these tools, as well as contemplating the ways that the general public uses them and interacts with them. And for some reason, the way Instagram users are using the platform is getting a bad rap lately.

Earlier in the week, I introduced a story -- A story about how my life has been radically changed through a series of intense events that prompted me with the need to find meaning and purpose in life.  Through those events, I was led to make some tough decisions that combined to build the foundation of who I am today, and how I live my life. 

This video is an attempt to express that same message in a different and unique way.  My hope is that this visual aid proves to be an avenue of communication that somehow surpasses the words that I have written, and that it embodies who I am and how I have changed in a practical way...

“Look up some porn.”

“What?”

“Go to a porn site!”

“I don’t know any porn sites,” was my response to the order from my high school principal to ogle nude women. Perhaps a bit of context might be appropriate.

My school, North Georgia College and State University, is in the process of merging with another nearby school, Gainesville State College. While everyone else is boo-hooing the entire process, I decided to write an editorial for my college newspaper arguing the other way.

As a true freeskiing pioneer, Sarah Burke's competition and lobbying has affected the lives of countless skiers, spectators, and athletes.  Over the course of her lifetime, Sarah Burke became a 
six-time X Game gold medalist, a prominent professional ski athlete, a beloved wife, and a world-wide ambassador of professional and non-professional female athletes.  Sarah Burke was quite possibly the most influential and outstanding female skier that has ever lived.




After lobbying for and earning the rights to compete in events such as the X Games and other skiing events on an equal level with men, Sarah Burke and other women gained the opportunity to compete in the 2014 Olympic Winter Games that are scheduled to take place in Sochi, Russia.  Burke was a shoe-in for Canadian representation in the new super-pipe freeskiing events and was likely already starting to prepare for the coming Winter Games.  Not only was she an automatic qualifier, Sarah Burke was favored to win the entire competition and expected to receive gold-medal Olympic standing.  

Tim Tebow Praying - Photo Credit

In a recent article on Fox Sports Exclusive, Jen Engel chooses to examine the constant scrutiny and ridicule that Tim Tebow, starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos, has been subjected to lately.  The source of such insults and slander span from private to public sectors - from national television, to casual conversations between friends. All of these confrontations and comments have created a growing "debate" and argument in the sports community, which actually encompasses the United States and beyond in this case.  As of late, it has provided constant fuel for the conversation regarding religion, faith, and the constrictions (or lack there of) that should be placed on such 'aspects' of life. 

The list for each of us could go on and on....  But when people ask me what I am thankful for, the most prevalent and important thing that comes to my mind to be thankful for is God's Grace.  What he has provided me through Jesus Christ is beyond all compare, far above the measure and influence of anything else in my life. It is this grace that gives peace, satisfaction, joy, meaning, and purpose to all other areas of my life. 

I find this to be a very relevant and powerful statement.

A psychiatrist working at Yale University, George Mahl, counted and examined ten speech disfluencies (including the infamous "uh" and "um") with the purpose of measuring a person's anxiety level.  He calculated that, on average, during every 4.4 seconds of spontaneous speech, one disfluency occurs in a person's speaking.   (Source)

With every week that passes by, 
I seem to realize more and more just how short life really is.

The changing of the seasons, illness, cancer, death, accidents, age, time-usage, friendships growing deeper, and friendships becoming forgotten, natural disasters, war, evil, the weakness and fragility of my own body...

1. "For after all the foundation of eloquence, as of everything else, is wisdom." -Cicero

2. “The human mind has the capacity to rationalize to itself any and all human actions.” -Michael C. Brannigan

3. ‎"Nature has herself appointed that nothing great is to be accomplished quickly, and has ordained that difficulty should precede every work of excellence..." -Quintillian

4. ‎"For human well-being mostly depends not on what people have but, among other things, on what they do with what they've got." -Daniel M. Haybron

5. "For many of us, the majority opinion constitutes the litmus test of whether something is morally right or wrong. This is logically absurd." -Michael C. Brannigan

My life has been transformed.  
A formerly hateful, abusive, and angry individual, I have now been reconciled to God through the blood of Christ.  This reconciliation, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, has impacted my life in intensely vivid ways.  



Relationships with several of my family members and friends, once bruised and crushed, have been completely restored and rectified - Something that I had previously thought to be impossible.  Destructive habits and attitudes that were once a significant part of my life - such as struggles with self-worth, pornography, lust, and envy - have been eliminated and defeated.  I have gained a sense of purpose and passion in my life that I could not achieve on my own. 

Social Media: it's everywhere today. With over 750 million people on Facebook, Google Plus on the rise, and Twitter a force to be reckoned with, it's hard to escape it.

I wrote the following to clarify a recent status update I posted about social media, and to clarify my philosophical position on social media in general:

Image from Urbandictionary.com

Normally when we hear the phrase "he is such a tool," it is used in a very derogatory sense.

The Urban Dictionary defines a "tool" as: "One who lacks the mental capacity to know he is being used. A fool. A cretin. Characterized by low intelligence and/or self-steem."

Today I want to redeem this term and encourage every one of you to be a "tool."

Be used.

Be used by God.

For what greater goal could we have in life than to become an instrument in God's grand purpose as he furthers his kingdom?

Trail 401. Taken during our trip to Colorado.

This past August I had a chance to take a week-long vacation to Colorado with my wife and a few of our friends. I basically spent all week mountain biking, camping, eating, and hanging out with people that I love.

I don't know when the last time you pried yourself away from the computer screen, TV, and iPod was (I know that I spend most of my waking moments staring at a screen), but the world outside is glorious!