In the modern world our everyday lives are evaluated, ridiculed and guided by social media. People post pictures that highlight the best parts of their lives, while hiding the negative aspects. They are obsessed with the amount of likes they receive and apps such as FaceTune, allows people to physically change themselves for social media.
Millennials are the generation that has grow up with, evolved with, and are obsessed with all forms of social media. They are allowed to follow their friends on apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.
Just like Instagram, Snapchat allows people to delve into someone else’s handpicked snapshots of their lives. People can post videos, or photo stills on the app and the “story” stays alive for 24 hours. After that, it disappears just like the moments themselves.
In this current era, everyone texts, messages, or Snapchats but along with that comes undefined “rules.” You can text someone—but not too much—for fear of being clingy. But if you don’t reach out enough, they may feel you’re uninterested or distant.
Sending someone a Snapchat is also an art in itself. What you depict is exactly what the person sees and interprets. You can make it seem as though you are out and about, having the time of your life—when in reality you could be with a group of friends feeling miserable—or secretly in your dorm room.
It is because of situations like that that social media has take on a rather deceiving role, and can deliver messages that we ourselves might not have the guts to do.
If you’re interested in someone, but then they send you a Snapchat of them with another girl or boy—your hope of something happening has just evaporated. Without them saying a word, they’ve let you know exactly where you stand. Or, when you reach out to a friend to meet up, and they never answer—but just hours later post an Instagram or Snapchat of them out and about—clearly you realize, you just weren’t that important.
Yet when you do see a photo on social media, being able to tell whether or not it actually means something—a relationship? Just friends? Is a mystery in its own right.
Rarely does anyone in this era pick up the phone and simply talk, or better yet have a conversation face-to-face. If you’ve got yourself in a hard situation, with a friend or a partner—the knee-jerk reaction is to text them the bad news, or ignore them all together.
I mean if you ignore someone, and then they see on social media that you’re having a grand old time—isn’t that enough for them to get the picture?
Many situations and hurt feelings could have and can be avoided through the absence of social media, and rather the presences of human connection. Communication wasn’t meant to be build on the characters of Twitter but rather the direct communication between people.
This generation has allowed social media to not only infiltrate their lives, but allowed them to hide behind it. Through videos, pictures and small words on a screen.
Being upfront no longer exists, so maybe a good way to start the new year would be to pick up your phone and make a call, rather than send a Snapchat.
