I am often astounded at just how reliant on technology our world has become. Without it a majority of us wouldn't even know how to get in contact with people, or how to find the answers to our burning questions. I personally have a very love-hate relationship with the internet and social media. On one hand, I see the benefits of having a world of knowledge at your fingertips and the conveniency of messaging people, researching information, and shopping. On the other hand, I think technology has made relationships shallower, caused people's self-esteem and mental health to diminish, and has hindered people from wanting to truly live in the moment.
One of my biggest problems with the internet and technology is that everything is tracked and your online footprint can't be erased. The lesson we had in class about how Google and Facebook can track you even when you're not using their services made me very uncomfortable. The lack of privacy seems to go against the freedom and ideals our country seems to fight so hard to maintain. I also dislike the fact that nothing you do on the internet can truly be erased. Yes, you can delete posts or your browser history, but it's never fully gone. I know people who have made mistakes in the past and have posted or looked up things that they are not proud of. Even though they may have changed their character and are no longer the same person who made those mistakes with technology in the past, the internet doesn't see it that way and will always have their past there to haunt them. Unfortunately, the consequences of this could lead to them not getting jobs. I personally have never posted something I would be reluctant about an employer seeing, but that doesn't mean I want random people behind a screen working for big corporations or the government seeing everything I have ever posted or looked up on the internet. I think that that is private information that shouldn't be shared. I think it's especially creepy that search engines seem to know what I'm going to ask before I even type it or that I get ads for things I was just talking about with a friend.
Another problem I have witnessed specifically with social media is a sense of false intimacy. Social media has a way of making everyone feel very connected and as if everyone knows what everyone else is up to. This can make people feel like they are good friends when they actually have no idea what the person is actually dealing with. I recently deleted my main Instagram because I was sick of spending so much time looking at images that I knew didn't accurately depict people's lives. I was never one to post a lot so I got really tired of people saying "what's up with you? I feel like I never know what's going on with you because you never post," yet they never actually bothered to reach out or call to see what I was up to. Deleting my main Instagram has actually been one of the best decisions I've made and I feel like I'm able to live so much more in the present and have deeper relationships with my friends.
The false images people create on social media also upsets me. So many people I know use photoshop apps and filters to make themselves look like what society idealizes beauty to be and they go to cool locations to take pictures but never actually take the time to explore or be in the moment with the people there with them. A lot of those people I know who do that have a lot of personal struggles and mental health issues, but the way their Instagram feed looks would make you think they were always out there living their best lives. While they are internally struggling, the picture- perfect images they post causes other people to compare themselves and become more depressed. I think it's devastating that this issue with social media has caused so many teens in particular to deal with depression, anxiety, sleep deprivation, and suicide.
Another reason I really don't like a lot of social media is because of the bullying. Especially this summer with all of the Covid-19 and BLM things happening, I saw so many people say that if people didn't think the exact same way as them then they said they didn't want to be friends on social media or in real life anymore. A lot of people were even called evil and horrible people if they didn't support the BLM movement or follow every single Covid guideline without even being willing to hear others out and understand why they might have different views. When someone who disagreed with the movements tried to respectfully state their views, they would be "cancelled" and sometimes even silenced by corporations such as Twitter and Instagram. Not only does that go against people's right to free speech, but it also made a lot of people feel scared to speak up or feel like they had a valid opinion. This really upset me and was one of the reasons I thought social media was getting so ridiculous that I deleted it.
While a lot of my thoughts on social media are negative, I think that it can also be used for good. I personally really like Snapchat because it seems more casual and personal. I use the app a lot to communicate with friends while I'm away at school and I also like saving my photos there because it takes up less storage space then just saving it to my camera roll. In high school, I used to make a little show every week on my Snapchat called "Avarazzi" where I would go around interviewing friends on fun and relevant topics. This was a really fun way to use social media that brought people at school together and allowed people to freely express their opinion on whatever topic was being discussed. Other social media like Linkedin can be great for getting jobs and Facebook can be good to see what family and friends are up to.
Just like with every new technology, there are good ways to use it and there are bad ways to use it. I think that it's important to find a balance and realize when it's good to use and when time is better spent doing other things. I really hope that my generation can be the one to come together and make the good aspects of the internet and social media even better while also working to put an end to the negative aspects. God willing in the future we will see a resurgence of people valuing personal human relationships and caring less about how people who don't truly care about them view their lives on the internet.
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