When you log into social media sites, you'll often get asked "What's happening," or "what's on your mind" upon loading the page. This is to encourage you to post and share your thoughts or information with your friends and family, as well as the rest of the people connected to the inter webs that can see your accounts. These easy and generic questions can lead down a rabbit hole of sharing and posting on social media for everyone to see. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of posting on Facebook or Twitter to share your opinions and things you may have liked or related to. It's easy to forget who you are outside of social media.

I think that having social media is a great way to stay connected to friends and family from all around, and finding things that make you laugh and cry. It's also a convenient way to keep up with the latest news updates and celebrity rumors that you may or may not have been looking for in the first place. I'm a culprit of excessive sharing and posting things that are relatable or meaningful to me. Every now and then I will share or write a personal post describing my emotions on a certain topic, or simply just updating my friends and followers on how my life is going. This is fine, and its an easy way to get information out in a quick and meaningful manner in order to reach the audience of people you want to reach. It's an easy way of staying connected to people because it doesn't require face to face contact, you can simply like or comment on a post, or tag someone in a post that you share a connection over. You can see the things that are happening in someones life at the click of a button, at any time anywhere. It's truly amazing how we are connected so interpersonally, and how we can make connections with people all over the world because of the ease of using social media. While social media is good for keeping updates going, and checking in on people you may not have heard from in a while, it definitely does have its downfalls.

This easy access also means people don't even need to make a conscious effort of reaching out to a person anymore. Using social media as one of the only means of communication can be detrimental because it is an extremely passive approach on getting information. This means you are only interested in this information when it shows up on your news feed, and that this person's importance in your life could be diminished. You don't need to make an effort to keep people around, so distance can be made between real life relationships just as easily as connections can be made between online connections. Another issue that I have with social media is our constant dependence on it. I am guilty of this as well. I am constantly checking all the different platforms that I have accounts on, trying to fill "empty time" in my day. The reality is that I can be doing a million other things that are much more productive than watching kitty videos on Facebook, or scrolling through a random celebrities' Twitter page for an hour. Our problem is that we are so attached to having a constant flow on connection with people; if we are alone in public, or in a situation that makes us uncomfortable, then we feel as though we need to at least look like we are connected to someone or something else. We can't let people think we can enjoy a simple moment in silence to be in our own minds.

I think the biggest thing that bothers me with social media usage is the idea that people think they know another person solely off of what is posted on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. But social media is designed to be selective. Even a person who posts every day on social media is still not even showing a fraction of who they are as a person. People get to decide what parts of their life they would like to show and make publicized, and which parts they would like to keep hidden away from the keys of their laptop or cell phone. Because of this, I don't particularly agree with dating websites, because you get to pick and choose which parts of yourself a person gets to know right off the bat, and this is often untruthful. Yes I know its true that people can be less truthful in real life too, but at least in real life conversations and relationships, a person needs to make an effort to keep a connection alive, and the other person can observe their characteristics for themselves. There is a lot of underlying and secretive judgement in the world of the mass medias, and because these apps and platforms don't require face to face communication, people can make their judgements and talk about others behind their screens and feel little/ no sympathy.

I think social media is a very good means of staying connected, and partially staying informed on things are happening in the community and world around us. However, there are definitely some major downfalls of this media usage which can negatively impact a person and a society. I often consider deleting my social media apps at least for a little while, but I always manage to talk myself out of it. I too have a strong dependence on these medias, but maybe one day I will be able to stand on my own or in a situation that makes me uncomfortable and just be able to breathe without my phone in my hand every second. It's time we started learning how to be people again instead of just robots who scroll before they can even learn to walk.