While I am an avid user myself, social media is completely changing the world in which we live. It's no secret that something that started out with us in the driver's seat, has completely taken control over us instead. Take a look at the person sitting next to you or at the hallways when you leave your daily classes. Everyone is hopelessly absorbed in what we call social media, which is actually not social at all. As the way we interact with other humans becomes more active through technology, social media has become detrimental to its users and society. The whole premise of social media is to help people connect, when in reality the connections are only drifting further apart.
How many times have you been out to dinner with your friends, only to look up from your own phone to see that everyone else is also on their phones ignoring the company right in front of their eyes? This has become such a norm that my friends and I put our phones in the middle of the table, and the first person to use it has to pay the entire bill. It's incredibly sad that it has even gotten to that point. According to research, the average person spends four years looking down at their phone. Four years! Imagine completely erasing your college years because you were too busy keeping updated on Twitter and Tinder.
Think back to your childhood. While I know we were young and at that age we can't really remember much anyway, I'm sure the memories that you do have are that of toys, books and imagination. No screens, tablets, or mindlessness similar to that of robots, existed. And while apps and iPhones are great tools, they all have their own issues within the realm of (un)social media.
The creators of Snapchat say that the purpose of the app is to send “fast and fun mobile conversation" through photo and video. In theory it creates unnatural and false feelings of FOMO through the “My Story" feature. It's exhausting to constantly be reminded of the people that aren't hanging out with you or the experiences that you are missing out on. It creates irrational self-doubt of why wasn't I good enough to be invited? When in reality, two friends saw each other out and decided to grab a bite to eat. It turns us into self-absorbed monsters that expect to get every invitation to every event. We start to take things personally, even when decisions were made out of convenience and not out of malice.
Instagram is causing people to edit their lives to create a façade of infinite friends, parties and vacations. Now people base their self-worth off of how many "likes" they receive.
“What's my like-to-minutes-posted ratio?"
“Did you see that Instagram? She went to California again? Look at her outfit and her boy. I hate her."
“Ugh, Jamie posted the same picture as me, but hers got way more likes."
These are real examples of how engrossed society is with their social media persona. The issue with Instagram is that people compare their lives and themselves to the absolute best version of someone. You don't see their flaws. You don't see them crying over the death of their favorite TV show character, you don't see the hours studying for tests and the C grade that followed, you don't see the fight with their best friend or constant work just to get by. Men and women make judgments on themselves based off of a perfected identity. In addition, judgments are made off of a mere snapshot. Talking down to its posters, just to make ourselves feel better, isn't uncommon either.
The third of the big three is Twitter, a status outlet that confines thoughts to 140 characters or less. The idea is to connect friends through simple messages, yet in turn it prevents deep, insightful conversation. Friends debate social issues and government policies less and less, but rather post a blurb to Twitter that may warrant a few "favorites" and a couple of "retweets." Original, creative and authentic conversation is lost through this medium.
As intelligent human beings, we are no longer able to sustain our focus on one thing for an extended period of time. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the average attention span of a human being has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight seconds in 2013. This is one second less than the attention span of a goldfish. It's shocking, but not surprising, considering that information is confined to 140 characters and videos are shortened to six-second loops.
Think about what you're giving up in order to watch that mindless video or use an app, when you could be making real connections with others. In essence, social media is not the enemy, the way in which we use it is. Each day it controls our lives more and more. While I'm not saying that we should completely disregard social media, I strongly believe that we need to take a serious look at our use of these sites. Especially in college, our lives are so new and exciting. We have so much opportunity, it would be a shame to overlook it all just for fleeting feelings of connection.
Stop living for people, and start living for moments. Do not live your life behind a screen or a camera lens, but be fully present in all that you do.
