Yolo... A Modern Day Philosophy? or just and excuse to stuff up.

Yolo has sky rocketed to popular culture in recent years thanks to Internet memes such as the one pictured below. The intent of Yolo has always been an Innocent one, trying to remind people you only live once so take every opportunity that comes your way. but it has taken on a second more disturbing meaning of take risks and make mistakes, because hey.. you only live once. Is it possible the Internet has fuelled the fire that lead to the downfall of what could be a very reasonable and practical way of life, and turned it into a joke about "teens today".

Throughout history there has always been saying that are reminiscent of Yolo such as seize the day, but none have been miss used and abused in the manor that Yolo has. By living your life by the belief of Yolo, you in effect are saying that because you only live once you plan to take every opportunity life throws at you, make the most of each situation and not waste your time on meaningless / depressing things. This is a philosophy allot of people live by, trying to fit as much into there life a physically possible. But throughout the Internet, the meaning has started to become miss used to such a level that it is now a joke. Whilst it is true in most belief systems that you only live once, and I don't think many people disagree that life is meant to be all about the experience that shape you, people are posting twitter post's with comments like "crashed my car last night...oh well #yolo" or "I smoke weed everyday because #yolo".

If you look at the term Yolo, it reminds us of things such as mortality and the absoluteness of death, and this is were the irony of the modern day use of the term Yolo comes into play. If you only live once, why would you knowingly partake in a high risk activity, which has a high likely hood to ending it all.

I myself try to live life remembering this everyday, that's why i started this blog, because i wanted to try things and experience things. I lived an extremely high risk lifestyle in my teen years, partaking in many illegal and high risk activities. I had some very close calls to either ending up in jail or dead, But I came through the other side, I cleaned my life up and I learnt allot. I learn that life is valuable, and knowingly putting yourself in situations that are high risk of ending negatively, is for me at least..... a waste. I now take opportunities as they come to me (as long as I believe i will benefit in some way from it) and actively seek out was to improve my life.

So what do you think? is yolo a way to live your life? have you ever said yolo after something stupid? or do you think that its just too risky... comment below and let us know.