Social Media Makes Us Less Social: Causes and Solution

“Make a human connection teach human interaction, as if it were as important as the very breath we breathe, look up at me look up at each other and look up at you”

- Allison Graham speech (November 11,2011)

The quotation above pertains that we, the citizen of this world should have the connection and interaction with each other. Especially when we are with the important people in our life. Don’t let the internet or the social media disconnects us, we must connect each other physically, laugh without using a phone, make a chitchat with you friends or even with your parents, not a chat via messenger or whatever you called it. Bond with your love ones like there is no tomorrow.

Allison Graham presented the topic “how social media makes us unsocial.” Today, for many, social media is part of everyday life to inform about places that you visit, thoughts or acts through a simple click. But social media influences people ways of life.

It talks about how social media is used to connect and disconnect us. Some popular words used by teens and adults in texting such as: BRB “be right back”, OTW “on the way”, JGH “just got home”, and many more to mention. Little did they know that they are unconsciously losing the refinement of the words to be fully communicative and interactive. The number one factor of death of teens is using their phone while driving. Dr. Andrew Adesman and a team of Cohen investigators studied that there are 8,947 teenagers aged 15-18 were using their smart phone while driving. Between the month of September 2010 and December 2011 and 49 percent of men accepted that they were using their phone while doing their business in their car compared with 45 percent of women.

Social media tends to make others by faking their lives. They only upload perfect photograph, simply to gain numerous “likes”, since the number of “likes” is equal to self-esteem.

One key part of being utilized by social media is the ‘selfie’ which is a ‘self-portrait photograph of oneself’ taken with a phone directed at the face, or at a mirror. Receiving positive comments in social media says that in can help to boost the self-esteem of an individual, while the negative feedbacks can reduce the level of being confident of an individual. It is better to use social media to create face-to-face activity, who grows human connection. A best place by holding each other hands instead of kissing on “click”.

By social media we are able to communicate to people who are far away from us, can get or buy anything we want without going out. And now in our current situation we are able to get up to date in all the happenings in the entire world. However, as Alison Graham said: “all I think we would all live life better if we had hands to hold rather than keys to click. I think we need to take that pause in our life make, mud pies, build a fort, take the time to gaze at the clouds for rhinoceroses and unicorns, screen free”. We must take a break from scrolling, by clicking and touching our phone. Let us not god the gadgets.

From all the reasons that social media makes us less social and gives accident to those who overused it, we should know how to limit ourselves by using the social media. We should also give ourselves time talking face-to-face not in front of the screen. We all know that social media/ technology has a huge help for us and it made our life easier especially now, in prevailing situation, we are using technology as a tool for learning but in that case, we must know still how to limit ourselves.

References

1. Anderson, M., & Jiang, J. (2018). Teens, social media & technology 2018. Pew Research Center, 31(2018), 1673-1689. (https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/)
2. Madianou, M., & Miller, D. (2013). Polymedia: Towards a new theory of digital media in interpersonal communication. International journal of cultural studies, 16(2), 169-187. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1367877912452486)
3. Jensen, K. B. (2010). Media convergence: The three degrees of network, mass and interpersonal communication. Routledge. (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203855485/media-convergence-klaus-bruhn-jensen)
4. Candrasari, Y. (2020, March). Mediated interpersonal communication: A new way of social interaction in the digital age. In 2nd International Media Conference 2019 (IMC 2019) (pp. 537-548). Atlantis Press. (https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/imc-19/125938028)
5. Petrič, G., Petrovčič, A., & Vehovar, V. (2011). Social uses of interpersonal communication technologies in a complex media environment. European journal of Communication, 26(2), 116-132. (https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2011-13108-002)