Think about the last time you watched television or went outside without your phone. Think about a time where you didn't feel the itching need to check your notifications on your little devices. Think about the last time you went to an event or a place and didn't worry about trying to take the perfect Instagram photograph to show the world that you are an interesting person. It isn't easy to do is it? The pressing need to share your life and convince your followers and friends online that you are an interesting person has become a large part of your identity. If you don't have an account to some sort of social media, you don't exist. The social landscape of modern America has changed from actual interaction with others to subtweets and Instagram photos. You don't have to make plans with someone to interact with them anymore because you can immediately reach them through a keyboard.
Is that not the most depressing thought? We focus so much on what our online presence looks like, and ignore the actual reality that matters. We've focused more on keeping up the online lie that we are completely happy and fulfilled people, and stopped trying to actually fix ourselves or face the problems we have. Technology and social media have become our own safety nets from the outside world. We seek the comfort of our friends online to convince ourselves that we matter more than we really do. We forgot how to experience things and enjoy each other's company without a cell phone to capture and share every minute of it. People are forgetting how to sit at dinner and talk. It's becoming harder and harder to even hold a conversation with someone anymore.
The modern world has evolved from actual interaction and has molded its people into anti-social drones who avoid contact with someone they don't know. This isn't the reality we have to live in. You may not think its a problem now, but as technology evolves and becomes more a part of our reality, the problems will only get worse. It isn't even about staying disconnected from your friends online. It's more about learning how to live and experience things without having the pressing need to record it and immortalize it to an online audience that doesn't really care in the first place. At the end of your life, none of this would have mattered in the first place.
Isn't the world hard enough to work through without having to worry about the activity on your accounts? We could spend hours at a time as kids just watching ants go in and out of their anthill. We didn't focus on our outward image that we portrayed to an uncaring audience. As my generation grows from adolescence to actual adulthood, we should help ourselves not become addicted to the computers in our pockets. Instead, we should learn to make our own realities so great that we don't need to show everyone everything. We need to learn how to actually achieve fulfillment instead of faking it online.
