For most of us on campus, certain faces are all too familiar, but only through social media. You turn a corner and suddenly reach for your phone as that random person you added on Facebook begins walking in your direction. Of course, you can put the face to the name but have never physically met. You're avoiding the situation entirely because sending a request or even messaging someone takes less courage than actual face-to-face contact. This is what our social media-based culture is doing to us; we're afraid to look up from our computer and phone screens to face relationships we establish online or even through texting.
Social media outlets, and even dating sites like Tinder, create opportunities for us to be anti-social- and what's even worse, to be okay with being anti-social. However, these sites themselves are not the problem; we are. We can indulge in online social interactions without letting it become an excessive, unhealthy habit.
We've all received messages on Facebook from people we've never once talked to, which can be awkward to begin with, but what makes it even more uncomfortable is when these same people ignore us on campus or we choose to ignore them. It may seem like the easy way out, but avoiding one another is feeding the ugly cycle of being completely unsociable, and doing this is making it a social norm. I am just as guilty of it as the next person, but we need to learn to be social again, and this means no more relying on just the media aspect of communication.
Not only is the aftermath of social media interaction ruining our ability to face people, but this and even texting are ruining our already established relationships. Our attachment to these things are ruining our capability to maintain strong relationships with people we already know away from the screens and cords.
Communication through media can be very convenient at times; I would even recommend it in certain situations. But there are specific things in life, important things, that are better off being done in person. The fear of face-to-face contact is becoming a real issue, damaging potentially secure relationships.
I have always been one who hates having important conversations through media outlets and not face-to-face. Messaging and texting make everything less personal, which is never something we should get used to. Unfortunately, it is something most of us have already gotten used to.
As much as I would like to say there needs to be a change, that would probably be a stretch. It needs to be a decision we make as individuals; we need to individually decide not to let media be our sole means of communication. We need to stop hiding.
