I really am tired of social media, but I don’t think I can stop. I’m too addicted to those little red flags that appear on Facebook when someone makes a comment or likes something I post. I get too much pleasure from hearing my cell phone buzz when one of tweets gets retweeted.
Even still, here are some recent observations about life in our all-too-digital world from a social media-weary 20-something.
- Mine is probably the last generation that won’t spend literally our entire lives on social media. Think about it. When is the last time one of your friends had a baby and didn’t immediately post of a picture of the still-gooey child to their Facebook page? Our children will be on Facebook from the first first day they’re born. They’ll think nothing of it when their first words, steps and poos are broadcast online to 600 or 700 of their parents’ closest friends.
- We should get used to wearing glasses. I swear my vision is deteriorating because of all the time I spend staring at screens. Most days I’m at my desk up to eight hours a day staring at a computer, writing. Then I have this tiny screen called a cellphone in my pocket that I’m basically chained to. Then there’s my personal laptop and television. I probably spend more time looking at screens than I do talking to human beings.
- We are always reachable — and that’s not always a good thing. Remember when you could leave your home a few hours and no one had to know where you were? When your phone was a land line attached to a box that played your messages when you got home.? I barely do. I got my first cell phone in college. Now there’s no escape. Not to mention the fact that we broadcast where we are and who we’re with at every restaurant and in every city we visit.
- We’re only half listening. If you’re talking to a Millennial, rest assured we have one ear on you and another listening for the buzz or ding from our iPhones that signals a text message or Facebook comment. One minute we’re in the room talking to you, and the next we’re sucked into this tiny device that’s talking to us.
- We don’t need high school reunions. Last year marked my 10th since I graduated high school. My class planned a small get together just a couple blocks from where I work but I didn’t attend. Facebook makes it all to easy to stay connected to the people I went to high school with. I know where they’re living, whom they’re married to and (refer back to my first point) I see pictures of their children on a daily basis. I’m even connected to people I rarely talked to as a 17-year-old. I don’t need to spend 2 hours at a dinner catching up with people when I already know too much about them.
- All this “connection” hasn’t made our relationships any deeper or more intimate. In fact, I’d say social media has made it more difficult to be real with people. When you look at my Facebook page, you’re getting a much more sanitized version of my life than the one I’m actually living. You see the picture of New York I posted (See? I’m worldly and well-traveled. Aren’t you impressed with me?) But you don’t read about the insecurities and the screw-ups I work through daily or the relationships in my life that are in shambles because of something I’ve done. Also, when was the last time you got an actual phone call from a 20-something? We’d much rather type as have an actual conversation. Some much of our communication is non-verbal that you leave out so much when you have written words.
- Print isn’t king anymore. That’s not news to anyone but I’m nostalgic for a time when people referred a local daily newspaper or alt-weekly to find out where their favorite back was playing on a given night and for town gossip. Now, nothing beats Facebook for events and gossip. Perhaps that nostalgia is because my day job is working for a newspaper.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go check Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Lori Kersey is a journalist and blogger living in Charleston, W.Va. You can follow her at Lorithebrave.com.
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