Katherine is a young teenager in today’s society that is a prime example of how we allow for technology to take control of us and how we are so into it more than anything. She has all of her social media accounts linked to her phone, which means she is constantly on it refreshing the page or waiting for a new update. Young teenagers get anxious when they are not with their phones because that is what they are most comfortable with and they might miss out on something.
With technology advancing and social media becoming a huge part of our everyday lives, we tend to lose legitimate connections with people. Friendships are broken because of pictures being posted on Instagram or gossiping over Facebook, relationships do not last long and are solely based on social media because we get upset when our significant other likes someone’s photo, and the new way to meet people is through dating apps rather than saying hi to someone in person that we may seem interested in. Yes, we are all guilty of one of these no matter how hard we try to deny it, but it is very important to recognize that we cannot continue this because we can lose our true selves in the process. Maybe that’s just me getting too deep, but I feel like we lose connections with people and the reality of things when we are so caught up in social media. At the end of the day, if someone unfollows you on social media who cares, if someone does not like your photo on Instagram, it’s not the end of the world. We try so hard to get the most attention from people when in reality, it is just a waste of time when we could actually be doing something productive that will benefit ourselves. I think we are all guilty of feeling anxious from social media in one way or another and that is completely normal. It is just important to be able to realize that and know that it is something that is very common.
I couldn't agree more to the above statement. I believe that technology has totally shaped the way that we act and think on a regular basis. We have put technology first before humans and human interaction. We do not leave the house without our technology, and if we do, large amounts of anxieties are created. The fear of not knowing what will happen in the social media realm while we are away from our device has overcome our lives. Social media has changed the way that we act towards one another and has changed relationships. This is something that has grown common to almost all people that interact with smartphones or any type of technology with social capacity.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you here in that technology (with an emphasis on social media) is shaping the way we think and act these days. I feel that almost everyone can relate to the unnecessary drama that sometimes stems from social media, since most of the popular platforms came out while we were in highschool/ starting university, we've seen first hand the good and bad that's associated with it. I completely agree with you when you mentioned that we try too hard to get attention from other people, when in reality we should be focusing on ourselves to make our own lives better. Although leaving your phone at home for the day or avoiding the computer at night is a lot easier said then done, it's important that we stop relying on these technologies so heavily, so we can alleviate the stresses and anxieties onset by this platforms.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with what you said about how our dependency on social media has rendered our social interactions in many ways. One thing I find very interesting is when we are on an elevator. This is a social situation that makes many of us feel uncomfortable because we are forced to be in a small space often with strangers. Because of this people will almost always pull out their smartphones and begin to browse in order to avoid having to communicate with the people around us. our smartphones have completely shaped the ways in which we interact in public and in many ways have made us more individualistic in real space and more connected in virtual space.
ReplyDeleteWhat stood out for me was your point on friendships and relationships being damaged because of liking someone else's photo it's pretty crazy that something a simple as double tapping or maybe not liking someone's picture can cause a reaction that may damage a friendship. Another thing to note is the whole notion of "following back" and if you don't follow back its perceived that you may not like that person which may not even be the feeling at all, I feel the more we let social media dictate our lives the more damage we do to our real life relationships
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ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the point you raised up regarding the fact that social media is now the first and the last thing we always check. We struggle to live without our social media and strive for popularity and acceptance through the use of our social media. As you mentioned, our generation fails to see how social media continues to heavily occupy our lives. We seek approval through our number of likes, when someone tags us in a photo or even how many comments we generate on our posts. Our social interactions are very dependent on our use of social media and this can have both positive and negative effects as well.