Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and many others aim at making the world more connected by creating online social utilities that allow people with internet access to share things and get information about other people’s interests, whereabouts, “likes,” and activities. But the idealistic aim is often different than the real role of social media in our daily lives.
The most common way of socializing is through smartphones which most people seem to possess. …show more content…
But the phone-obsessed generation is facing many new challenges. When the individual becomes a user, when a nice memorable photo becomes an “instapic”, and when a deep thought becomes a hashtag, the world is doomed to realize the major effects of social media on all life’s aspects.
“Alone Together” is a book by author and psychologist Sherry Turkle, that explores the ways social media is changing how people relate to each other and to their society. Her research is based on many interviews with children and adults as well as analyses of individual and family studies concerning the time spent connecting online and its consequences on the person’s mental and social health.
In an interview for The Monitor in 2011, Turkle said that when we are able to mentally “leave” at any time, and when we can run away from our problems and hardships with others simply through connecting to social media or anything else on our phones, we go through the “most dramatic change.” (Price, 2011) Turkle also gave the simple example of 15-year-olds when they get together for a birthday bash. As it is well-known for anyone who has been 15, she said, there comes a time at these events when attendees would want to go home. The situation becomes a bit awkward, but everyone should learn to get along and make things better to enjoy the party. However, nowadays, whenever teens get bored or feel the desire to leave, …show more content…
A lot of unfortunate things occur between people when they shift from having different feelings and calling someone else to wanting to have a feeling and becoming satisfied by just sending that someone a text message. In this case, people are negatively affected, and their relationships fall apart, because instead of finding consolation in others, they start to see them as objects and constantly need them to feel complete, when they actually can’t perceive them as full and different individuals. Others become a temporary solution or a missing part of our weak being and delicate self. Therefore, it’s psychologically true that “if we don’t teach our children how to be alone, they will always be lonely,” she said. (Price, 2011)
One of the online campaigns about quitting social media is a video that ironically went viral. (Withnall, 2014) Some people found it overdramatized while others thought it was brilliant. The 5-minute spoken word film, named “Look Up,” urged people to stop their blind attachment to social media and benefit from every moment. It featured a man, Gary Turk, reciting his poem, with a set of clips from different social occasions playing along. The following is one of the verses that stress the need to live life