I put a tremendous amount of value in emotional honesty. I always try to keep these columns as honest as possible. Yes, I exaggerate for the sake of humor, and I tend to write from the view point of my ideal self. But there’s always a large amount of truth in whatever I write. And I just admitted those faults to you, so it all evens out or something.

I’m also a big fan of Facebook and Twitter. I have a lot of fun tweeting stupid stuff that I find funny, and I love making short, pointless comments on statuses from years ago. Basically, they provide me with a great opportunity to say all the stupid stuff that I can never say in real life.

But I have another reason to love these social media sites. I believe that they’re creating a more emotionally honest generation. While there’s a lot of idiotic nonsense on these sites (to which I’ve greatly contributed), there’s also a lot of heartfelt, beautifully honest stuff on them. I love that they provide people with an easy way to tell others exactly how they’re feeling, that they give people a way to say all the stuff they want to say in real life but can’t. Some people don’t like this, and they think that these sites promote over-sharing. But I don’t buy into that hyper-masculine “a man’s business should only be his business” trash. Some thoughts are just too much to hold in, and these sites are perfect for letting them out for the whole world to see.

I know just how difficult it can be to have something that you want to say, something that feels deep and intelligent, and be afraid to say it because you’re afraid that it’ll be met with blank stares. I’m a teenager. I’ve yelled “nobody understands me” and slammed my door before blasting loud, terrible music several times in my life. But these websites give me an opportunity to throw my thoughts out into the open without actually having to face anyone.

Yeah, I’ve pretty much used my opinions column as another social media site. A lot of the time, I don’t write my response to some current event, but what I think about my life and where it’s going. And honestly, it’s one of my favorite feelings in the world. It’s incredibly freeing to be able to open up to everyone, to let people walk around in my brain for a little bit. I love that I get to demonstrate to everyone that yes, I’m a guy who likes to make jokes and mess around, but I’ve also got some more serious thoughts floating around this handsome head of mine. And the only reason why I do all of this in the paper is that I like to see my thoughts in print. And it’s great to have a fantastic group of editors looking over my columns and not adding complimentary lines about themselves into them. If I could get people to edit my Facebook statuses, you’d better believe that I’d write more of them.

Social media isn’t perfect. A lot of Facebook statuses are just boring and pointless. Nobody cares what you ate today. But overall, I love that these sites make it easier for us all to be more open with each other. So post your status. Tweet your tweet. Live your life and let everyone in the world know about it.