Social media impacts younger generations so overwhelmingly that older generations are surprisingly following suit. It's like a new dance that has gone viral and people of all ages want to learn it, even if they are a little late.
When we see our parents and grandparents on a site like Facebook, they like to spread all of their personal business across the world, from expressing dinner plans to exposing adultery. With the continuous overflow of social media, adults are shying away from the old-school approach of bashing everything the young folks are doing. It's a different day; the young generation has more control over this world than ever before.
Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and MySpace (whoever still uses that) — the list goes on of social media websites that shape society today. It’s how we communicate, get news, let others in on our personal lives and even to find our true love. So social media is awesome to have, right?
Social media is positive only when the consumption of social media does not exceed moderation. America doesn’t seem to grasp the idea of moderation anyway when it comes to social media, or anything else for that matter.
With the continual rise of technology, social media continues to be in our lives and it is consumed by all age groups. You may see your fifth grade cousin taking pictures on Instagram, a sorority at your college getting their 15 seconds of fame for taking selfies at a baseball game, or even worse, seeing a friend request on Facebook from none other than your great grandmother.
Of course, being on social media can be fun. But it can also be addicting; so addicting that you could find yourself checking on it 100 times a day like the 13-year-olds in a recent CNN study. It’s becoming so excessive that even things like “selfie sticks” are being popularized — and the grown-ups are the ones who are popularizing it.
The funny thing about social media is that it negatively affects real or personal social life. A date between two people that like each other now consists of being together with their faces in their phones the whole time. Instead of meeting a nice girl in person you may spark an interest in, now you can just “slide in their DMs” (slang for conversing via direct message on Facebook, Instagram or most commonly, Twitter).
Or we record every part of the day on Snapchat for people to see (even though the average person would most likely skip it).
When every activity we share with others is behind a keyboard or camera, what kind of real life social skills can we have? What will our kids do when they have to interview for a job? What will happen when that guy who swipe-righted that hot-girl has to actually speak to her (or does he even have to)?
Adults are the ones following the young teens with the help of reality shows and advertising. Every time you watch a show on television, advertisers want you to tweet about about it with a hashtag (which is good advertising, of course). Adults are then reeled into following the latest trends, which leads into more consumption because of social media's addictiveness.
Not only that, we’re letting social media determine our morals. Who’s attractive and who’s not, whether or not a celebrity (that we don’t know at all by the way) is a bad person or parent or even what’s right and what’s wrong in society. If I don’t agree with the masses on social media, I could be looked at as an outsider and would be in danger of my character being attacked.
Social media has been taken to another level, and will only continue its excessiveness; it’s up to the individual to decipher whether it is getting to the point where life is just not enjoyable without it. I challenge you to go to a concert without recording any of it on your phone. We see teenagers and adults alike with their phones in the air.
Go on a date with a loved one and put your phone away until the date is over. Try to actually talk to someone face to face without being awkward. Take a break from social media, and improve your social life.
Related Links:
Tech Spec: Uniting Social Media Through Path
Tech Devil: Social Media vs. Social Change
Reach the columnist at adonis.dees@asu.edu or follow @Don_D24 on Twitter.
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Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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