Our generation is the guinea pig of society. The first ones born into a world of social
media and influencers. Today in America, the most desired job was ‘influencer’, in China, it was
astronaut. People are more connected than ever before, which provides many benefits, as well as
many drawbacks. Social media is a deep cave that many people are entrenched in, causing them
to believe that what they are viewing is indicative of day-to-day life. Normal people don’t drive a
Bugatti, or take their private jet to the South of France, or have a perfect body. I have largely
stayed away from social media; however, it’s impossible for it to not affect your life as a modern
person.
The problem with social media is that it provides a false reality that we immerse
ourselves in. This reality takes over our vision of what life should look like, and we expect our
physical lives to mirror this. This addiction to fiction causes us to be depressed with our ‘boring’
reality. Depression rates amongst teenagers have increased dramatically among all demographics
in the past 20 years. The first forms of modern social media have been around for a couple
decades now, yet the effect they have and the sheer volume of people connected to them has
skyrocketed within the last 10 years. It has the power to influence politics, our entertainment, and
what values are accepted and unaccepted in society. It shapes our body images and our economic
goals, often into unrealistic ones that the average person will not obtain. Some people view this
as motivation, including myself; however, the majority of people do not perceive it in this way.
They see it more as a standard they have to achieve, and when they don’t achieve it within
whatever unrealistic time frame they have set, they beat themselves up over it. Oftentimes this
will pile up and cause people to get ‘trapped in the cave’ by their own hand, literally. Social
media, and phones in general are one of our main sources of entertainment, and where a lot of
our attention is set. So naturally, escaping this cave is difficult, and oftentimes burns us, as the
light of the sun burns the prisoners.
I think society is entrenched in the social media cave, shouting about how detached they
are from it on those very platforms. Many people do not recognize their usage as a problem, and
as with many issues in society, they never perceive themselves as doing anything wrong, because
what is defined as ‘wrong’ is always just that bit more than what you’re doing. Now I am
definitely no shining beacon of hope when it comes to this topic. I may be better off than some,
but certainly not all. I still fall slave to my notifications, and I have a compulsive habit of
checking my messages, wondering if that person replied or not. Jesse Ventura, former WWF star,
and governor of Minnesota said, “We all do better, when we all do better”. The truth is, that as
with many things in life, baby steps are key, for how can you fly if you cannot even crawl? And
so, for the past two weeks and counting, I’ve turned off all the notifications on my phone from
6am-7pm, and even in this short time, I have found myself thinking of my phone less, and
thinking of my online presence less. In fact, last week, for the first time in years, I lost track of
my phone for more than a day, and I simply didn’t care that much. It turned up eventually, being
under my bed (of course), and for a brief moment I wondered if I should leave it there for a little
longer, to test my limits. Predictably, I caved instantly, but there is a valuable lesson to be learned
from this experiment; even the smallest of things, such as turning off notifications during the day
helped in my addiction.
I think obsessions of any kind can usually lead to dangerous outcomes, social media
notwithstanding. In fact, it’s probably one of the deepest obsessions a person can have, as it is
embedded into your external organ: your phone. This is just asking for trouble because who
would’ve thought that when you give young children, who would literally die of starvation
without their parents, a pocketable device that allows them to know anything and communicate
with everyone instantly it would become a hub of addictions? It truly is difficult for a modern
person to truly learn and practice a distinction between a phone and yourself. It literally becomes
a part of you in a tangible way that affects not just yourself, but also your reputation. Your online
presence is arguably even more impactful than your real life presence, as everyone you know is
‘always on that damn phone’. Now, I’m not gonna act like some boomer and call for the
destruction of phones, but I am gonna act like a boomer and call for more personal responsibility,
and I will argue until the day I die that the greatest changes in life are made by your actions.
Dishearteningly, I don’t see society actually committing to any of the changes they say
they will, if they care enough to even think about them at all. I think people underestimate the
impact that these small changes can have on their lives, or maybe they even overestimate the
impact, seeing it as a sort of suicide for their social life. In reality, the few people I know that
have actually committed to this change are generally just happier, and a common feeling is that
of liberation to some degree. These small steps can help greatly in some areas; however, a
majority of the negative aspects of social media don’t only present themselves when a user is
addicted, such as subconscious comparison and the dulling of reality. For this, we would need to
cut deeper than just turning off notifications, and the next logical step would be cutting down on
the amount of time you spend on social media and other digital entertainment.
In the foggy mist of changing times it can be hard to see a future that is stable; however,
keeping reality in mind and staying grounded can help guide you. There are baby steps you can
take that have or lead to monumental changes in your life. Staying true to who you want to be,
not letting social media or entertainment dictate how you should see the world or your goals, is
key.