I am a big fan of social media.
It's a great way to share parts of your life, stay connected with friends you don't see and network with potential coworkers, bosses or clients. For businesses, it's essential to getting your brand out there and generating interest and awareness. Users can even meet and make friends online in addition to all the ways they find significant others through the internet. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest and Tumblr are great tools for reaching people.
If you ask most users why they have social media, they'll say "to keep in touch with people." And it's true; social media can be great for that. However, I think there's a strange side effect that many users (including myself) are suffering from. Let me explain.
I am very active on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. I use Twitter pretty regularly as well. Whenever something in my life happens (new job, graduation, acceptances, etc.), I will tell my parents, boyfriend and some close friends. Then, I tend to post it on Facebook. It's not to brag, or even to mark the moment for myself. I honestly post to simply inform my family and friends.
What am I doing this summer? Well, I got an internship. Post it to social media and, BAM, now it feels like everyone who might care knows.
Recently, I've realized what I am really doing when this happens. Instead of seeking out friends and family who might care about my new job or whatever it might be, I post to a wide audience. Casting this huge net creates a side effect of the whole "keeping in touch with friends" idea of social media. It ends up being the smoothest way to not actually keep in touch with people, but to look like you are.
My friends can simply look over the post, react to it and maybe comment and then, move on. There is no keeping in touch. There is no conversation. There is no exchange. It is a one-way transaction.
And we end up settling into that routine. It feels comfortable. We post, everyone knows; no need for conversation. Yet, it hinders us from actually speaking with our friends. It exchanges intimacy with publicity. It's like buying space on a billboard to tell a few people that you moved to a new house. Everyone may look, but no one really feels the need to respond much.
So it seems that while social media can be a great tool, it is often used incorrectly. The point of social media is to give users a platform to connect. It is our job to pick up where the platform ends and run with it.
It takes work to be friends with others. If you really care about connecting with old friends or making new ones, you have to put in some effort to hold conversations. It can't just be a public post.
I am not in any way saying that we shouldn't post to social media. I think it's pretty obvious that the practice is here to stay. We just can't blame social media for not helping us maintain meaningful relationships if we ourselves do not take the initiative. to reach out.
