I grew up in a time long before smart-phones and social media. I remember when there was one landline for the entire house and when your friend called to chat, you'd twirl the phone cord in your hand while trying to walk as far as the cord would go to get some privacy.
I even remember the day my mom came home with her first cell phone. It was a small, silver, AT&T flip phone. It was such a foreign object to me. I couldn't grasp onto the idea that she could call or text people on it when we weren't home. All I wanted to do with the phone was play with the antenna by pushing it in and pulling it back out again.
Since those days, I feel like technology has come such a long way. Now there's iPhones and Androids that let you use different social media platforms to get recognized and share your life with the world. Honestly, I've become so accustomed to using these that I can't imagine my life without it.
But what has social media really done to our society since becoming a thing? I hadn't really thought about this until I was sitting in my backyard, staring out at the bay and seeing a pod of dolphins swim right up to the seawall. My first instinct wasn't to stare and admire these wild creatures coming so close, but rather to pull out my phone and record it on Snapchat.
Have I really grown so accustomed to social media that I can't even enjoy nature doing it's thing without wanting to show the world what I'm witnessing?
Social media has become an addiction to people like me. It's crept up inside of my daily routine that I no longer can make time for anything else without wanting to see what's going on in the world of Twitter or Instagram. I also feel like social media has left people feeling dissatisfied with their lives.
With social media, you're constantly comparing your life to other people's lives. You're always trying to make up for what you don't have and what they do have. It's like a popularity contest for who has the better life.
It shouldn't be like that, but it is unfortunately. Social Media has brainwashed us.
Although I can name the many wrong things with social media, I also believe it has proven to be a good thing for the world.
Without social media, I probably would not be aware of what's going on in the world today. Social media has given a voice to those who need it, as well as give them an audience they wouldn't necessarily find elsewhere. It keeps our children focused on what's going on with things like injustice, politics, etc.
Overall, I believe social media has proven to be a good and bad thing to our society. It has provided an escape to those who need it most.
