As I sat in my writing lecture today, we were discussing a topic that genuinely struck my interest and truly had me thinking.
We were talking about the fact that in today's society everything we do is driven by social media in some way. Everyone knows what everyone is doing in their life, whether it is what they ate for lunch that day, who they went on with that night or where they went out. It is interesting to think that humans, as smart as they may be, have seemed to let something like social media dictate their lives.
Ask yourself this, how many times have you heard someone say "I need to get a picture of this for my Instagram!", or "I need to post that on my Snapchat story!" It is quite frequently that we hear such phrases in our society. So why is it that we have been driven to this? Well, it is not an easy answer, as there really is no DIRECT answer. Social media is very interesting, because in retrospect who really cares what this person was doing on a Tuesday evening with their friends? Apparently, everyone does.
When you think about it, how many Facebook posts do you see a day that you blindly like, because it is one of your friends posting it. No one really CARES that Jessica had dinner with Becky, but we like the post anyway because it keeps us engaged in their life. It is interesting to think that such a simple picture of someone and a friend can gather hundreds of likes.
This leads me to my next point, has social media affected the way in which form relationships with others? To be quite honest, yes it has. It is noticeable, at least to myself, that people truly tend to struggle forming pure, intellectual relationships with people as a result of social media. Everyone can say anything online, as creating a profile online you basically have the power to invent this construct of your own self.
How many people can you sit down with for hours and just have a conversation about the world and the events going on, without referencing social media or checking it. Most people will tend to check their phones multiple times in just one single hour. Not only does this show the social media driven society we live in, but it also proves that not many people can attentively converse with someone with zero interruption and remain engaged.
Now, I am not here to bash social media, it has many wonders! Everyone, myself included, usually has some form of social media. It is a great tool to stay in touch with others and also voice an opinion. Although, that does not go without saying social media is definitely abused in our society. I write this article not in attempt to shame those on social media, because there is absolutely nothing wrong with it! Rather I wanted to foster a different mindset towards social media, and allow people to also think about how much of their life they spend on social media.
