A few days ago I was having lunch with a friend of mine, and the main topic of conversation was one we (and probably many of you) have truly needed. We talked about how absorbed by technology and social media our generation of people has become and how badly we want for that to change. Now, don’t get me wrong. I think the concept behind social media is a beautiful thing; being able to connect with friends and family who live across the country or pretty much anywhere on the globe at the click of a button astonishes me. Lord knows I wouldn’t be able to arrive at my destination merely three blocks away without the built-in GPS feature on my phone, for I was not gifted with any sort of directional skill. Technology definitely has its place, and I think, in a lot of ways, we’re better off because of it. However, there are also many reasons we’re not.
For me, the main problem is the place in our lives we have allowed social media to occupy. Many of us open our eyes, and the first thing we do is check our phones. When we stand in line at the grocery store, we scroll through Facebook and Instagram (oftentimes mindlessly) because it would be too awkward to actually have a real-life, face-to-face conversation with the people who surround us at the checkout. They are strangers after all. Funny how that doesn’t seem to phase us when the stranger is on the other side of a screen.
But hey, I get it. A lot of face-to-face conversation is downright awkward. You don’t have the kind of response time texting allows for. You can’t add cute emojis (which are way more animated than we are. Also, if we laughed out loud as often as texting allows us to claim, we would all have rock-hard abs.) You’re on your own to impress the person you are speaking to when you don’t have the comfort of a screen to hide behind, and that’s scary for many of us. That shouldn’t be.
We are wired for relationships. We thrive in conversations with one another. Contagious laughter and smiles uplift our souls when life gets to be dull and dreary, and that only comes from personal interactions. Maybe you feel a little better when you receive a nice text, but how much better would you feel if you received a visit instead? How much longer would you remember hand-written words of affirmation and encouragement? Or how glad would you be to get a phone call from the person you miss so dearly? My guess is all of those more thoughtful, personal forms of communication would do much more than a sweet text message ever could.
I encourage you to limit your current use of social media as I do the same. Ask a friend to a meal. Call your parents. Pour out more time into reading a good book or painting a masterpiece. So much potential for hobbies and strong relationships exists in the time we waste reading the highlights (or more often, lowlights) of the lives of those we went to high school with. Take a step back from the negative posts, political rants and selfies for a while, and spend some time with the people you love. I promise you won’t regret filling your time with love and laughter. Who knows, you may even find that the world isn’t quite as lonely as it seems when you are “connected” online when you make personal connections in real life.
