Social Media: The Ultimate Oxy Moron

Throughout the entire class on Tuesday, (the entire semester for that matter) all I kept thinking about was that I wished my husband could be taking this class. I literally said to myself that I needed to get him the “Social Media Guard”. It’s amazing how numb or oblivious we become to how removed from the real-world technology makes us. As advantageous and socially enhancing as social media is, is exactly how disadvantageous and socially hindering it is. It can quickly become an excuse to avoid interacting with people. I’ve done it myself - see someone that I am not in the mood to interact with coming toward me, and I pretend that I am busy on my phone. Sometimes it is as overt and deliberate as this; others, we may not even realize that it is happening/we are doing it. It can also act as a sort of buffer when you are in public, say at a restaurant eating alone, you feel somewhat less of a loser because you are (appear to be) at least important enough to be “spending time” with someone on the phone. It can be the beginning of a relationship just as quickly as it can be the end of one. In depth conversations can turn into mindless, separate, phone scrolling. Some people do indeed communicate better in writing. I would even venture to say that a lot of people do because they have the luxury of editing. You also have the ability to take emotion OUT of the equation. It’s funny because that is often something we say against technology – emotion is harder to gauge. But sometimes emotion also gets in the way. Additionally, the protection of the keyboard allows you to be who you really are without appearances getting in the way, and could allow you to be able to talk to someone whom wouldn’t normally give you the time of day. For every negative there is a positive; for every positive there is a negative. The back and forth could go on forever.