I like to engage in social media because it keeps me in touch with a lot of different people from all around the world.

Be careful because social media can be like TV, sucking all your time into  void.

I don’t watch TV because I’d rather spend my time reading or watching something educational.

I do indulge in the occasional movie. I did recently discover the HBO TV series “Silicon Valley” and I think it’s hilarious!

Getting back to social media – I treat it like an experiment in sociology and anthropology.

I am intrigued by how people behave.

Recently I saw a re-post (this meme is years old already) about Bruce Lee playing ping pong with a pro using only his nun-chucks.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/advertisements/pingpong.asp

A while back I saw a similar video, similar in the sense that people were amazed by this miraculous event. A plane losing a wing and landing safely.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/airplane/onewing.asp

And I hope you’ve seen the one where a large jet plane has a malfunction with the front landing gear and a guy in a pickup truck comes to the rescue by positioning the truck under the landing gear.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/advertisements/landinggear.asp

I could see some people believing Bruce Lee playing ping pong with nun-chucks, although I was suspicious as to how well he did.

I could even see some people believing that a highly trained and skilled stunt pilot could muster the courage to land his plane with one wing. The video was quite authentic-looking. I was also suspicious of this. Being an engineer and all that. Believe me, bbeing an engineer ruins most movies and TV for me.

I once had a friend say to me “A college education has ruined movies for me.” because once you learn about the laws of physics and science in general, you begin to see the holes in most action and sci-fi movies.

However I immediately knew that there was no way a several ton commercial jet airliner was going to safely land its nose gear in the back of a consumer-grade pickup truck. They land at about 100 MPH. The nose of the plane will weigh at least 5000 lbs.

But in all instances of these videos posting on social media, most if not all the people were amazed as to the feats they just saw.

I can see how most people don’t understand quantum physics or genetic engineering, but there are some simple and basic laws of nature we all should be aware of. This is akin to being literate in a modern age.

A lot of people complain about how they have no need for calculus in their day to day lives. But it scares me a little when so many people drive cars but have absolutely no idea how they work or how to fix them when they malfunction. We fly frequently but most people don’t understand aerodynamics or how jet airplanes work. And we use smartphones and computers every day but most people have no clue as to how they work or what’s inside the box.

This leads me to a conclusion, we are in an age where we have no idea how the devices work that we use. And we use these devices every day.

People don’t know where their food comes from, or how it’s prepared, or what is in it. Especially processed foods. This is scary because what if there are toxic chemicals in that food? Actually there are, in trace amounts, and we call them pesticides, fertilizers, steroids, antibiotics, etc. People are afraid of the 3 letters G-M-O, but they don’t pose nearly the threat that the aforementioned items do.

Back int he day when times were simpler, before computers and cars and anything manufactured, we knew exactly where our food came from. We knew almost everything about our environment. We knew everyone in our tribe personally, because we saw them every day of our lives and there were only 100 to 150 of them. We hunted our own game, picked our own berries. We saw the entire cycle of hunt to prepare to cooking of everything we ate. Life was simple.

In todays modern world there