How Does Social Media Affect Social Life?
Isn’t it amazing how we end up scrolling through social media while we are already besieged by people around us? How saddening is it that it’s a sign of privilege to be famous on social platforms rather than in social settings? What does it tell us about ourselves? A plethora of questions, and the answer lies in just one little device, i.e., the smartphone!
We are living in a virtual world where we make virtual friends who become best friends forever or crime partners for life, virtually though. Instead of reading books or novels and expanding our horizons of knowledge, we feel more tempted to log into our accounts, devour each meme, and post visually challenging pictures day in and day out. Needless to say, we have become reserved, and our whole world revolves around us and the mass media.
It hasn’t been long since we used to visit verdant places, socialize or introspect, and imbibe the beauty of nature with our naked eyes and share those cherishable tales with our near and dear ones in person. But now, it all has become anachronistic, a thing of the past. Now we feast our eyes on captivating vistas of the natural world through the prism of our phones. Ironically, the beauty of Mother Nature lies in the mobile of the beholder.
An act actually meant to connect us with other people is satirically distancing us from those around us. Moreover, statistics have shown that smartphones are harming relationships, threatening our sense of belonging, and making us feel excluded.
It is not a matter of criticizing the digital world so much that one forgets to keep pace with the modernization of the age. The matter is grave! Human beings are caught up in the rat race. Digitalization has made the atmosphere competitive. Everybody wants to be ahead of everybody else—the younger generation, to be precise. Today, it is difficult to survive without social media. The youth have indulged in a cutthroat competition to become internet famous. The extent of its consequences is daunting.
The digital boom has created bubbles of unrealistic expectations. The façade of perfection on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. is fragile and transitory. As a matter of fact, social media fame is easy to court but hard to manage. The ceaseless involvement with the virtual world leads one to shut off real-life engagement and makes one experience a psychological void, leading to acute emptiness. The veil of happiness over social platforms becomes a reason for their unhappiness.
A study by Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, found that late-night browsing could reduce the quality of sleep, resulting in gloomy moods and even low levels of self-esteem. Anxiety and depression come as by-products of it. In addition to it, the flood of notifications from WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Telegram, etc., makes people jump from screen to screen, causing an information overload. The result of this is a scattered brain and wayward thoughts. The young minds struggle just to get through the day. They get lonely! They are left thoroughly confused and exhausted. They lack the required knowledge, guidance, patience and discipline. Consequently, they fail in the pursuit of light and happiness. Public loathing and personal despondency go hand in hand, after all.
A major way out of this grave situation is to reduce the sources that create a cacophony in life. Once we root out all the evils that make us dreary creatures, we then create our own roadmap for making our lives exciting again. We discover the treasures of life. Spending time with people and enjoying simple aspects of life like conversation and laughter gives us a moment to be mindful of what is going on in real time in the real world. Do we not agree that a cheerful citizen is more welcome than a depressingly dull netizen? Well, we do!
Above all, it is wise to be less active in virtual life and more active in real life. As they say, we are the fulcrum of our deeds. Therefore, it becomes imperative to maintain an equilibrium between social media and social life. In the words of Catherine Pulsifer, “in all aspects of our lives, balance is key." Doing one thing too much can cause upset; as the old saying goes, "everything in moderation is the secret.”
