Once upon a time there was no social media (dramatic pause for those born pre-1995). The only internet was the slow dial-up that could only be used late at night or when your parents weren’t home because the internet blocked the phone line. If you wanted to get a message to your friend in school you had to write a letter that you folded into some origami design and handed off in the hallways. That was probably the closest form of a text message. There were Myspace and Black Planet accounts but you could only access those during those internet peak hours. It was a simpler time.

Then there was Facebook. Facebook was launched in February of 2004. It was originally only for Harvard students but it expanded. There were limitations to every age group on Facebook. The high school students could only be friends with other highs school students and you had to be invited to Facebook from someone at your school. College students could only sign up with a college email. Then, Facebook opened up to anyone 13 and up. Cell phones were just becoming popular and there was no Facebook mobile so you could only access Facebook from a computer, normally when you got home from school. First there were statuses then there were pictures. Facebook was a social site but it was not the bible of what’s going on in the real world. After Facebook there was Twitter, and Instagram, and Snapchat and so many more social media sites.

Now, a relationship isn’t even considered to be real unless it’s posted on Facebook. We have gone from a social world, where we interacted with one another, to a social media world. With the countless apps and unlimited cell phone data we are now glued to our phones more than ever. Most people can’t go one day without their cell phones. There’s nothing wrong with keeping in touch and keeping up with one another, which was the original purpose of social media. Now, it’s the only form. Instead of enjoying a vacation or time with family and friends, we are posing for the best picture to post or snapping the entire time. It seems as if the purpose is to show the world how awesome your life is, whether it’s that awesome or not.

Rumors are rampant and travel faster than the speed of light thanks to social media. If there’s speculation of trouble in a relationship, Facebook is the first place others check to get more information. We have now become so involved in other’s lives that we feel obligated to know what’s going on. We also feel obligated to show the world everything we have going on. Vacations are spent posting the best beach pictures to get the most likes versus putting down the phones and enjoying times with loves ones.

All these changes to the access of social media have warped reality. It causes us to become envious of what we think is someone else’s reality. It causes us to focus more on others than ourselves and those who matter most to us. It also causes us to crave the updates and personal information of others. Some argue that there is no point in class reunions anymore because you can simply go to someone’s Facebook page to find out what’s going on in their life. You can see pictures of the children, new spouses, their vacation last summer and their brand new office. Social media has taken the social aspect out of real life.