This day and age, we Millennials are all about Tweeting our every thought, snapchatting our every moment, instagraming our favorite pictures and yakking our secret and/or dirty thoughts. When we’re hanging out with friends, our faces are probably buried in our iPhones as we scroll, read, scroll, read and refresh. It seems like so much of our actual face-to-face conversation stems from something we just saw on our phones. These behaviors, as well as the following, will one day ruin our lives.
Every relationship we have will eventually suffer.
With this, I’m not referring to strictly romantic relationships. I’m talking about every relationship we have and will have in the future. Our communication skills are advancing in technology every day, yet diminishing when it comes to face to face contact. The days of a neighborhood kid knocking at your door to “come out and play in the snow” are gone. I remember back in middle school, I’d ride my Razor scooter down the street to my friend’s house, knock on her door, talk to her parents like a normal human and ask her to hang out. But now, that’s virtually unheard of. Obviously, I’m not waddling down the street in my snow pants and mittens, knocking on random doors and inviting children to play. What I mean is that even if I did have a reason to knock on my neighbor’s door, I’d feel weird doing it. Instead, I’d try to call them or send a text to avoid any uncomfortable face to face action. I am aware that’s a problem, but, with the evolution of communication and social media specifically, it has become one. Even little kids are texting or direct messaging each other on their smartphones, and to me, that’s concerning. If I notice the effects of this technology obsessed era myself, I don’t want to know how these younger kids are about to feel. Quite worried for their futures.
Our self-esteem and self-securities will vanish in real life.
Not only have our people skills suffered, but so has our self-esteem and confidence? Most people are grossly obsessed with the “satisfying” feeling of posting a picture they put way too much thought into, creating the perfect caption, and (hopefully) raking in the likes. But why? Though I’m guilty of it too, I can’t understand this behavior with some reflection. I do not get how gratification can come out of someone double tapping your photo. What does that do for people? Regardless, girls and boys all over the world are constantly searching for the most complimentary filter they can find, and crossing their fingers in hopes of get their newest PR in number of likes. This isn’t just seen in Instagram either, but on Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat. On Twitter, it’s all about conjuring up a clever and trendy tweet in hopes of plentiful RTs and favorites (or now, “likes”). Some may even delete their tweets that didn’t receive enough love in fear of being looked at differently because of 140 or less failing characters. On Snapchat, people get genuinely upset if someone opens but does not reply to their snap. Like, so what? They didn’t feel like sending a picture of their face in the same expression that you’ve already seen 100 times? On Facebook, there are people getting stressed about how many likes their profile picture is getting, and if it doesn’t get enough, does that mean you’re not even popular? People seriously judge their self-worth on how many people wish them a “happy birthday” on their Facebook walls. To some, losing followers reads as “people used to care about me and now they don’t.” It is saddening. We should not base our happiness and self-esteem on these superficial and incredibly shallow platforms, but we do. And, if we continue to do so, our sanity is severely jeopardized.
Forming and keeping romantic relationships will be damaged as well.
We can all agree that chivalry is basically dead. For example, the days of meeting a girl at the grocery store, getting her number and asking her on a real, live date rarely happens—mainly in our generation. I believe there are many factors other than social media presence that are responsible for this, but I’ll spare you and skip over that for now. I’ll say that flirting does still happen, though a lot of it occurs at bars or while hiding behind Instagram handles. Nowadays, girls’ hearts skip a beat when a guy from ACC221 they think is hot likes their Instagram picture. When a girl likes a guy’s picture, they may assume that she “probably wants to bang.” Both parties are oddly convinced those gestures are real forms of flirting, though, I guess that isn’t too far-fetched. Another popular trend of getting a girl or guy to notice you is to “slide into their DMs,” which is actually just ridiculous. Guy: (Sends picture of himself smiling while shirtless)—Hey baby girl, your twit pic is super sexy. Wanna come over later for some Netflix and chill? I’m sorry, but what response do people actually believe that will warrant? And for the people who seriously respond to those proposals: Are you kidding me? Unfortunately, the list does not stop there. Don't think for a second that I would ever forget about the one, the only—Tinder. Swiping right to approve and left to pass, all by looking at some photos. You don’t even communicate with the person before you decide if you like them or not. If that isn’t shallow, I’m not sure what is. When someone gets a match, there's likely to be a crude exchange of words and probably nothing more, unless you're one of those people who actually follow up on their Tinder matches. Regardless, the whole thing is rather pathetic. These attempts at social interaction are embarrassing to me as a human being.
So, there we have the three major ways that social media is ruining our lives. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll probably post an Instagram photo tomorrow about how much I just miss my girlies so much and tweet about how I can’t wait to get back to Oxford, or something else just as meaningless. Like I said, I’m guilty of this idiotic behavior myself—we all are. It’s natural to want to be involved because our generation thrives off of it. How else would we know what horrifically stupid thing Kim Kardashian has said recently, see what our friends are up to or stalk our ex every Sunday? It’s not like anyone will tell you these things in person because obviously that’s way too 20th century. So go ahead, tweet that meme. Just know that in 10 years from now, you’ll probably find your unborn child texting in the womb via an ultrasound. Good luck, and don’t forget to follow me on Instagram and Twitter!
