The people of the United States are very overwhelmed right now. Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma have caused a lot of damage to the places they hit, there are constant immigration and other political protests, and North Korea continues to be a threat. So much is happening right now that it is almost hard to keep track of each story on the news.

But the way Americans are coping with these stresses seems to vary. On one hand, some people are expressing their heartfelt feelings towards each issue all over social media, and on the other hand, there are people making memes out of the issues and masking America's problems with humor.

I find myself somewhere in between--my heart breaks for people when I hear about what they are going through in this country, yet on the other hand, I scroll past a popular Hurricane meme and I laugh.

So is social media making us more sensitive, or insensitive?

Well, I would argue that it is a little bit of both.

Social media has been a very popular development in our society that has benefitted us in many ways. Raising awareness is one of them. Because of the internet and social media, I feel like I am more informed on social and political issues than I would be without Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Social media gives people the opportunity to express their opinions on certain issues with room for interpretation and debate, which in return has made us somewhat more knowledgeable on political and social news throughout the country.

But social media also has some negative aspects to it as well. Even though we are gaining knowledge about what is happening across the country and the world and expressing our opinions on them, some people are sick of hearing so many deep opinions that they decide to reject everyone's emotions and post funny or unrelated posts about the issues. I understand that some people use humor as a coping mechanism, in fact, I am one of those people. But some "funny" social media posts or memes can cross the line, and it makes our internet-driven generation come across as insensitive even if we don't mean to be.

So what do we do about it?

I am not going to write this and be the person that says "ban memes!" or "don't like any memes about Hurricanes, DACA, North Korea, etc!" But I instead think that we should just be more aware of how our actions online affect others. Sometimes we say things we don't mean over text or social media because we use our computer and phone screens as a shield. We feel some subconscious disconnect from what we post because we don't say it physically out loud to hundreds of people, we are just typing.

This applies to both sides: When people post really emotional rants about current events, they need to sit back and acknowledge that what they are saying will be out there for everyone to see, so try to say it in a way that will reach people, and not let the rant itself to get in the way. And when people make memes or posts something funny about current events, make sure you acknowledge the actual issue at stake and ask yourself if the issues are really something you should joke about before you post. All things considered, let us in the future be remembered not as the generation that became insensitive because of social media, but the generation that used social media to help others for the better.