should social media be called anti-social media?
I was waiting for the bus at the university today, as many other students with me. Each of us on their phones, I suppose none of us really noticed this anti-social behavior of all these young people with probably common interests and common lifestyles. I looked up from my phone screen and asked myself: When did we stop talking to each other? The feeling of being a stranger grew inside me, I felt anti-social and lonely with all those other students around me who will not even notice that I am here, because they are to concentrated on their phone screens. … And there it was: a message on WhatsApp in one of my 1000 group-chats. “Hey everyone, come around to my place in an hour, we drink coffee and eat cake, I want to see you all!”
I love these spontaneous dates with my friends, some of them always find time so spontaneously and it is just so much more easygoing than scheduling every date we have! Would this be possible without having any social media and without everyone of us checking there phones regularly and looking at their phone screens while waiting for the bus for example?!?
Does social media strengthen our social behavior or does it obstruct us from our social lives?
Sure, we do meet others by using it and that’s great! To be able to meet spontaneously and talk to your friends whenever you want and where-ever you are, but on the other side I often see friends or couples not talking to each other and just checking on their phones. So does social media make us anti-social?
Following the definition for the word “anti-social” in the Oxford Dictionary one is anti-social if he/she is “not sociable or wanting the company of others” or “unwilling or unable to associate in a normal or friendly way with other people” By definition therefore, social media cannot make us anti-social. The term seems to not be isolated to the “real” world. If someone is interacting in the virtual world, then that person is, following the given definition, not anti-social.
On the other hand, we have developed a habit of checking our phones so regularly, instead of having a conversation with the people around us. I suppose that many of us are unaware of their regular consumption of social media and their own needs of their social lives, because the constant use of social networking prevents us from needing or wanting to be social in the real world.
However, there are multiple benefits to social media. We get to connect with people all around the world, we get to express ourselves and our opinion to others. Social media allows us to meet new people or even reunite with old friends. All in all, social media may seem like an anti-social concept but I think it really is advantageous to the modern world we live in today.
Or does social media make you anti-social?
