Is social media defining us?
Nowadays, it is (is it?) useless to say that social media has become a huge part of our daily life. Most of us use it, whether it is after a long tiring day of school/work, or before starting a new day. Indeed, most of us sleep with our phone not too far away from us : what if a new notification has popped up during the night? We wouldn’t want to miss it, right?! Today, we use our phone for everything. Although it was originally invented to communicate verbally at first, now we can basically do anything with it. To wake up, just set an alarm. Don’t feel like calling? Just text. Want to know the weather forecast? Open the weather app. App… There is practically an app for everything now. For whatever you want. You could even be surprised by some apps sometimes. Honestly.
Now let’s talk about social media. Does it define us? Does it make us who we are?
I had my first phone (and so social media accounts) when I was fourteen. Now, I see kids with the iPhone X, two laptops and three tablets: has the world changed that much? Do kids nowadays still go outside to play with friends in the garden? I dare to hope so. Of course I am making a generality here, but you get me. Technology, and so social media, has invaded every part of our life now. Whether you are a kid, an adult or old.
Of course, social media can be bad for some of us. You only have to go on Instagram and you will almost instantly come across “fit people”; people whose passion is fitness, their appearance and sharing this obsession publicly to the world. Why not, after all? People upload cooking videos, cat videos… But unlike cats, these “fit people” can make some people feel uncomfortable about themselves. However, the point of social media is to entertain and distract yourself from reality; to disconnect from the real world. To relax and feel good. Sometimes it’s the complete opposite: people are victims of nasty comments affecting their self-esteem. And I know what you’d tell me “just don’t look at those pics”. And I would simply answer to you that you do not have a choice but to see them. It is the law of social media after all, right? We think we have control of everything we do and see on there, but the truth is we have no control. Who is really controlling this virtual reality we are using? Have you ever wondered about that?
And yet, most of us are, without maybe even realising it, addicted to it. Social media has become a real business. Checking social media several times a day has become the normal thing to do. In the bus, waiting for a lecture to start… Whenever really. And there is a variety of choice: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, YouTube, LinkedIn… At least you get to choose. Or just don’t choose one and use them all like most of the population does! It is important to understand the emergence of social media along the years. Here is the daily time spent on social networking by internet users worldwide from 2012 to 2017 in minutes. It went from spending an hour and a half on social media in 2012, to almost two hours and a half in 2017… Crazy, right?
… So, what do you think? It’s easy to find many videos on YouTube where people “take a break from social media for the day” or spend “a week without social media”… as if it’s something crazy and an impossible thing to do… But the sad thing is, it’s actually hard to. So should we stop using it and instead focus more on real people, real things surrounding us, instead of being glued to and hypnotised by a fake world? Does that make us idiots?
Although social media can have downsides, it’s not however all negative. There is a good and bright side to it too. Social media is made to relax and spend a good time scrolling on whichever social media we like. And it does not keep us from doing other things like reading, exercising, or having a drink with friends… The options are infinite really. Still, all these different virtual platforms have a real side to them: it allows us to chat with friends that live close or on the contrary far away from us. We can even see them as well although they are thousands of miles away. Isn’t this beautiful? As I am only a one-year exchange student in England, I made memories and friends here. But when the time comes and I’ll have to go back home, I’ll definitely be using social media to keep in touch with them. And it is pretty nice, because it makes the leaving less sad. Although it will be, and that’s a good sign, isn’t it?
With thanks to Tracy Enright
