Lately I’ve been finding myself spending more time on social media when I am bored. When sitting by myself and bored of watching Netflix I decide to browse Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. My first thought when I sign on is that I will find someone to chat with and make plans. The reality is that, that rarely happens to me. I go on and see people are online probably doing the same thing I am which is brainlessly look at their news feed, which is always spammed with things that I tend to click on out of boredom. Someone is always arguing with the world which I do find amusing, but still does not tend to my want of social interaction. Then on to twitter where I can see my friends tweeting “1m ago” so I know they are again doing the same thing as me checking twitter and wondering if they have something worthwhile to tweet. The rare time I feel I have something I want to publish to the internet, but it will not get any favourites or retweets so it was most likely not as brilliant as I thought. Instagram is a place where people post pictures of them and their friends in the most exciting points of their lives which makes me feel as if I do not have enough friends, or do not do enough fun things that are “picture worthy.”
While viewing social media and being aware of how I feel with this sense of “useless hope” before entering these platforms made me wonder how students must feel all of the time. Growing up in an era where social media was not a norm I can identify these feelings that I have recently started experincing while on social media. But what about children who this is all they know and they don’t know a world without Facebook and Twitter? Especially at that age they will not have the development necessary to recognize these feelings are due to social media and those are scary thoughts. With all this in mind I started to look up articles and tidbits about “social media and loneliness/depression.” I found many shocking articles that have made me fear for future children’s sanity. This sense of dependency on social media that people seem to have in this society.
There was a time in November I was not feeling quite myself and was feeling very lonely and one of my friends told me that social media was probably having an impact on that. Going on and seeing friends’ pictures having fun was effecting how I felt about my own self. He spoke of articles he has read about how we can no longer be alone because of cell phones, social media platforms, and this sense of always being and wanting to be connected. What he said really changed my outlook on social media and my cellphone phone Ion the way it was negatively effecting me mentally.
This is my second blog post bashing social media and the negative effects it has on our society. With that being said I do think social media is great and does keep us connected in long distance situations with family, friends, and connecting with others of the same interest. I just think as a society and as yourself you need to be aware of the feelings that can fester up around social media.
Further readings:
Further readings:
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