The Advancement Of Social Media

Social media recently has taken over to be one of the main sources of communication, information, and entertainment in today’s world. You can do a poll on any classroom and ask students if they have accounts on social media including twitter, snapchat and instagram, and I guarantee hands would shoot in the air with ease. This new wave of social media has not only taken over the way people communicate and share, it has taken over people’s lives. Tons of people, me included, can’t go anywhere or do anything without their phone for that reason. People aren’t worried about having a phone in case of an emergency or for any of the features, the main thing phones are used for is social media. In class, at work, working out,in the shower, in bed, when you wake up, going out to eat. People spend a majority of their day swiping, double tapping, and commenting. There was once upon a time when people were not worried about social media as much as they are today, people actually met up and had face to face conversations or even enjoyed a night out without having 4 different conversations not including the person they went out with.

Now not all social media is bad and negative though, although the wave of social media has definitely affected how people interact and live their lives, there is some valuable information and updates that people get quicker on social media than watching regular news. I know there has been a lot of times where something in entertainment happens live and usually if you weren’t watching the program you would miss it, but now with the speed and quickness of most media outlets and its followers, without you even looking for it, videos of things happening on live TV are sent right to your phone and shared all over the internet to watch thousands and thousands of times if you really want. I’ve always said it must suck to be a celebrity because there is really no sense of privacy, if a celebrity walks out with two different socks on to take out the trash and get seen. Literally within that minute it took them to take out the trash,they can be trending on twitter and be all over the internet, that is how crazy fast the internet and social media outlets move nowadays. So yes, although many updates and trends can quickly be followed and news can be spread to our connoisseurs of this generation, this generation needs to better as far as prioritizing their needs and wants. Teens these days feel like they need to have their phone instead of needing to finish their assignments. You can get so far invested looking at funny videos and tweeting about the latest trend that not only do you miss out on what is going on around you, but your grades will start to slip because if you aren’t doing your homework at home because of instagram, and you aren’t paying attention in class because of snapchat, how do you think you are going to do on the test? And believe me, the answers for that test won’t be on twitter to help you. It’s all about a realignment and a restructure of what’s important in a kids life when it comes to the use of social media.

We as a generation have to do better with understanding that yes although it is ok to have accounts on these platforms, it isn’t ok to allow these platforms to have more of your attention than these assignments and important things like life. Even typing this blog, I have found myself checking social media when my phone vibrates because I feel like im missing something, the way our minds are wired is to be brainwashed by the importance of getting the fastest news and being the first to be updated, maybe if we just slowed down and appreciated the things going on around us rather than what’s going on with other people in other places, we would learn to appreciate and value this life so much more than we do now.