We, as a society, have become too consumed with using social media, and it’s starting to have negative effects.
There are some people who are so obsessed with it that they can’t go even a whole class without checking their phones at least 10 times.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for Instagram and Snapchat, but there are times when we need to put down our phones and look at the things and people right in front of us.
We’ve started having less social interaction with one another and started staring into a screen, waiting for likes to show us our sense of worth.
One thing all social media sites do is create a false sense of what everyone is doing and how they are feeling.
I personally don’t know anyone who posts stuff such as “having a horrible day, just want to cry my eyes out.”
No, it’s usually pictures of people having fun, smiling and looking like their lives are perfect.
This makes those not involved feel they’re missing out and their lives aren’t as good as all their friends. This, in the long run, creates more problems.
Another problem social media sites have created is people creating fake profiles to bully others or trick them in some way.
This is also known as catfishing, which I’m sure most of us have heard about.
These people are so obsessed with social media sites that they spend their whole day on them, pretending to be someone else. This is not only creepy, but also presents the problem of cyberbullying.
Because these profiles are fake, no one knows who these people are and they can say whatever they want and get away with it.
Another thing that having so many social outlets and apps has brought upon our society is a shrinking attention span.
Like I said earlier, some people can’t even last a whole 45-minute class period without checking their phones multiple times.
According to a survey conducted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the average attention span of a human in 2000 was 12 seconds, and it dropped to eight seconds in 2013.
Since then, it has only gotten worse, and with the continuation of social media outlets, I think we’ll see that number drop even more, if that’s even possible.
These things are also creating more problems in the minds of children.
We are seeing the rate of those diagnosed with ADD and ADHD rise every year because people feel the need to continually be entertained.
If we’re not constantly watching or doing something, we feel bored. I’ll admit I’ve felt the same way before.
We just have to learn, like our ancestors, how to entertain ourselves without the Internet or the problem is just going to continue to get worse.
Not to say we should stop using social media sites, but maybe cut back or set a time limit.
There are so many beautiful things out there to see and do that don’t require you to take a selfie.
Find those things and enjoy them and don’t let social media take over your life.
