Social Media is a great tool for connecting with the world. You can be across the globe and share statuses, pictures, and tweets with friends and family. However, I believe the way social media has changed our lives is one of the saddest things I've seen happen in my life.
A couple weeks ago I had a conversation with my best friend about how we used to talk on the phone for hours when we were little kids. I then asked if she remembered having to make small talk with our parents before they handed the phones over to us. We both remarked how awkward it would be if we had to do that today. Why? Why should it be uncomfortable or awkward to ask my best friend's parent's how they were doing? These people are like my family, I should care about their lives. Over the past 15 years, I am confident I have kept them up at night and ate all their food. The least I could do is talk to them. Social media has allowed us to skip the "small talk phase" . We can now instantly send a message on any platform and not have to jump through any unnecessary hoops so to speak.
Social media can be a huge ego boost or a major downer. I know that I've found myself wanting to delete pictures off my Instagram account if they didn't have a certain number of likes that satisfied my ego. I've actually gotten angry about losing a follower. Again, why? Why do I feel the need to receive gratification through someone double tapping their phone screen? If I posted a picture, I obviously liked it. That should be the only thing that matters. The same goes for Facebook and Twitter.
One of the biggest downfall's to social media is the effects it has on relationships. Today a "liked" picture might as well mean that the person who liked it is in love with you. Obviously this is not true, but our generation reacts this way. I recently heard someone tell me their girlfriend became jealous that they responded to another girl's tweet. It even sparked an argument. Why shouldn't this guy be allowed to respond to a tweet? In fact, wouldn't it be rude to ignore it altogether? I believe relationships are built on trust. Sadly social media has diminished the trust from relationships.
So what should we do?
Put down the phones and laptops and spend time with living, breathing human beings. Go outside, meet new people and explore the world. Have conversations that are deep. Have conversations that are meaningless. Just physically communicate with people. Humans were not meant to hide behind glass screens. It is part of our nature to speak. So go talk to anyone and everyone.
