Wow, this year has now come to a close. Another one is in the books! It’s time to look back on what 2018 was for me. I wanted to take the time to recap three highlights in the last 12 months that really stood out for myself.
Dirty selfie from Shake Shack mid-summer 😅💪🏻
Excercise
If you recall from my 2017 year in review post, I mentioned that I struggled to find my footing for hitting the gym. I was in school at the time, I was working two jobs and lacked the passion. Thankfully towards the last quarter of the year, I literally just sharpened my mindset and rededicated myself.
I took that same mindset into this past year and set a personal goal: go to the gym five times a week for 365 days. That’s right…52 weeks! Are you insane!? Wayne…you’ve never done that before lol. The process started in the third week of September 2017 and I’m proud to say that I achieved this for all of 2018. This was no easy task given a few weeks out of the year I was travelling, with the odd week or two I also caught the seasonal sick bug.
What does it take to do some sort of physical activity 294 times in one year like I did? Consistency and lifestyle. As I have said in the past, they are married to each other and you can’t have one without the other. Pushing through the calendar year beyond the September 2018 target date also allowed me to extend my goal even further. As of this writing, I am still going five days a week strong!
GQ for the night.
Hosting
Most of my friends know that I once used to moonlight regularly as a club MC/host. I’m talking hosting everything from nightlife parties, to stags, weddings etc. In early November, I was asked by my employer to be the master of ceremonies for our annual Christmas party. I constantly refer to this evening as “prom,” the one night of the year where everyone in the company literally dresses up in formal attire lol.
This past month’s story involving six students from an all boys high school assaulting two fellow classmates, has been the talk of the town on social media. St. Michael’s College School is one of the most prestigious high schools in all of Canada. If you are not to up to date with this news story, here is a recap:
CityNews were the first media outlet to receive the disturbing videos.
Was the bullying inspired by 13 Reasons Why?
The details are certainly disturbing. While hazing and bullying are nothing new to adolescents, could it have been inspired from programming seen online?
Netflix’s controversial show 13 Reasons Why, takes a look at teenage pressure such as sexual, alcohol and drug abuse. It is quite possible that what happened at St. Mike’s could have been inspired from the hazing that character Tyler Down endured on the show:
This was the most controversial scene in season two of 13 Reasons Why.
What to do now?
It’s a terrible thing to see our youth emulate what they see on their devices. I think bullying in general is never going to go away and with a medium like social media, we can react fast and raise attention. In this case, the videos were briefly circulating on Instagram and it was a matter of time before the authorities got involved.
As for the school turning a blind eye originally, shame on them. It took local news outlets to expose them for not paying attention to the school culture that goes within their hallways. What they thought that was happening was just a small level of teasing, has now turned into a sexual assault case, with six students aged 15-17 being expelled for good.
Often times we live out our lives too much on social media. We take numerous photos and videos while only posting the best ones. For what though, to present ourselves as the best? To hide our flaws? To outdo our friends and followers? At what point do we stop ourselves and realize that we are doing too much on social? Let’s look at two stories that occurred this past month with grave results.
The first story comes out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada where rapper “Jon James” McMurray plunged to his death after losing his balance on the wing of a flying plane. The 34 year old was filming a music video while rapping on the live plane. McMurray had repeatedly practiced the stunt safely.
However on the day of the video shoot while walking deeper onto the wing, the plane took a downward spiral. This caused James to lose balance and fall off the plane while in the air, with not enough time to deploy his parachute. His body was eventually found in a farmer’s field.
While Jon James was known to be a risk taker, his death could have been prevented. Why not go with a music video treatment that had less extreme ramifications? Did he have his own expectations to outdo his previous videos?
We live in an era where there is pressure to stand out, to be different. But at what point do we draw the line and say enough is enough? Was his desire to live in the fast life and show it all off on social media really worth it? There must come a point where you need to put your safety first, regardless of how many engagements you get on social media.
At what great lengths are you willing to get the perfect shot? How far will you travel to get the picture that will generate the most likes and comments? For Vishnu Viswanath, 29, and his wife, Meenakshi Moorthy, 30, their pursuit of a hobby as travel bloggers cost them their lives.
On October 30, their bodies were discovered some 800 feet at the bottom of Yosemite National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. The couple from India had built a growing following on their Instagram page with 14,000 followers, which has since doubled in the wake of their tragic story. Vishnu and Meenakshi were standing on the ledge of the popular Taft Point overlook and must have lost their footing, plunging to their deaths.
The duo may have foreshadowed their own fates by even writing in the captions of their posts. They questioned if they were really chasing sunsets or chasing likes. One must have to think that there could be a social media addiction here. Could it be that we often look to social to create our best version of ourselves from what we really possess in reality?
Outro
These two fatal stories in the month of October are a reminder that some people, are willing to go to dangerous lengths to live our their best lives on social media. Without a doubt, this social pressure is alarming and could be an emerging trend on moving forward.
People need to realize that at the end of the day, you are simply a human. You do not live your life solely on digital. Stop trying to show off online just to feed your ego. Don’t oversell yourself on social. There is no need to showcase your own insecurities. Don’t try to be some daredevil putting your life at risk, just to produce that viral visual.
While these two headlines involved were adults in their early 30’s, imagine what millennials and generation Y and Z are capable of doing. Tide Pod challenge anyone? 🤨
