It's funny how things change. Remember the good old days where you would play outside and stay busy for hours at the work of your own imagination? When you would have priceless conversations with your family at the dinner table? When you would hang out with your friends and actually talk with one another, and not feel the need to post everything you are doing on some form of social media? Those were the days. Nowadays, things have changed. Our gadgets have turned us into someone else. This raises Watkins’ question, “Is the ability to be entertained constantly and no matter where you are really a good thing? Or are we simply creating an escape for what is real?"
There is something wild, raw, and ephemeral happening behind your smartphone when you are locked into your screen -- something called life. We have used social media as a way to stop time, but we fail to realize time is buzzing by behind the screen while we are scrolling through pictures and tweets.Our way to “stop time” is completely ineffective. What we are doing is wasting it. We have to take a step back to come to the sad realization that we are missing out on life. We are trading what is real and authentic for what is fake and can be measured in megabytes. Wouldn’t you rather see life measured through love and laughter rather than likes and followers? Wouldn’t you rather be present in what is happening right in front of your eyes than see what somebody else is doing through your screen? We are truly missing out on life by trying to make our lives look incredible to our followers. What we are posting is not real. It's what we want other people to see. If you want what is real, put it down, and shut it off.
Everyone on social media is showing what they want you to see, which leads to a great deal of insecurity and anxiety. Sure, we can be entertained all the time, but how we are feeling during this time isn’t always positive. People used to worry about grades and other people, now they are worried about who is getting more likes and if their last picture made them look fat. The reality is that a lot of anxiety, jealousy, and overall negative feelings are a package deal with social media. First, there is jealousy. You are scrolling through the girl your crush likes’ Instagram and wondering why you don’t look like that. You begin to compare yourself to her. And thus begins all the negative feelings. You feel insecure, inferior, jealous, upset, etc. But what you don’t realize is that she purposefully posts only the pictures that make her look this way. She has her own insecurities just like you do, and just like everyone else does. Everyone is posting to make themselves look like they are all that, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t negative feelings on the posting side as well. Posting a picture, a tweet, etc. is a stressful experience we have created for ourselves nowadays. I cannot count the times my friends have sent me pictures asking if they look good before posting a picture, or the times that I have done the same. Whenever you post on social media, there is a fear of people not accepting you. As much as these social media sites keep us entertained, they sometimes have us wrapped up in negative emotions.
Negative feelings aren’t the only downside of social media either. Social media is a paradox in itself because, though it was created for us to build our social lives, it has been the cause for a decline in the same area. Social lives in general aren’t what they used to be ever since social media has really blown up. In fact, social skills in general have suffered because we are so used to interacting with people over the internet instead of in real life. Hanging out with friends used to be a great time to talk, catch up, and make memories. Now, friends hanging out has become people sitting in separate corners of the room (wherever there is an outlet) with their faces in their screens, occasionally talking only to discuss what they see on their screens. Parties used to be a time to have fun, make memories, and meet new people. Now, there are people in the corner taking pictures for Instagram, and people all over the place filming themselves “having fun” for SnapChat. Social interactions are not what they used to be. Nowadays, it seems like something is only worth doing if people can post it for likes.
Social interactions are not the only thing altered from our need to be entertained all the time. Society has collectively changed as a whole due to the advances in technology. We have changed the world as we know it - and not necessarily for the better. Now, instead of enjoying things in the moment, we are posting about things and measuring the value of a moment based on how many likes it receives. We have moved from a society of doers to a society of posters. You are out of the loop of society if you aren’t a part of this social media. Instead of existing face to face, we are existing from screen to screen. We have collectively changed our society into something much less meaningful.
We use our phones and computer screens as a distraction and an escape from much more important things. I see it every single day. When people are walking alone, they would rather stare at their phone and use it as a safety crutch than look at people and have real human interactions. When people are doing their homework or studying, they would much rather look at their phones aimlessly than stay focused on the task at hand. Even when people are in class, they would rather feed into the nothingness on their phone screens than gain knew knowledge. Society would rather stare mindlessly at screens than deal with what is important. We have used this new technology as a way to avoid what is necessary and important.
Unfortunately, big companies will take the technology as far as we let them. As long as we keep buying their new updates, downloading new apps, etc., they will just keep on coming. What I would like to see is a big universal change where we all shake off what we have done, and make a stand against this “entertainment” that has stolen away authenticity. I would like to see us go back to phones being for texting and phone calls, and computers being for business and schoolwork. I would like to see us put our phones down and laugh about how brainwashed we have become. It blows my mind that as human beings, we are not stronger than this. I am ready to go back to living on the other side of the screen. The grass was greener over there - probably because somebody actually put down their phone to water it.
I say we get it back to the good old days where we did not need a distraction from life because it was beautiful enough to hold our attention. Wasn’t life filled with so much more substance, variety, and personality before everybody just became a face on a screen? Isn’t it nicer to have a guy come up to you in person and tell you how he feels rather than him sending you a message on Facebook? Wasn’t hanging out with your friends so much more fun when you didn’t spend half the time posing for the perfect picture, and the other half of the time checking up on the “likes” you received? Wasn’t it nicer to talk to your family at dinner, rather than all of you sitting in silence as you scroll through pointless pictures and words hardly important enough to leave an impression? Real words out of real mouths and real feelings out of real souls - that is what we need to get back to.
Yes, it's true that these social media apps keep us “entertained," but entertained is a very loose term -- distracted is more like it. We are distracted from learning, people, moments, and life. Since when did we need a distraction from our lives? Isn’t living our lives what we are here to do? Our ability to be entertained 24/7 is an ability we do not need. What we need is to wake up and realize that we only have one life to live, and posting, tweeting, poking, and messaging is no replacement for a racing heartbeat, a kiss on the lips, a genuine smile, a beautiful sunset, or a true connection with a real person. This “ability to be entertained” is more like the technology companies’ “ability to entertain us” and get us to feed into the mindless activities they put out there. We need to choose living in the moment over living in pixels, and put down our phones.
