There are many problems facing the world today – poverty, terrorism, world hunger, disease, and countless others. However, that is not what I want to focus on. Our current society today is creating an environment of despair and ignorance, and it's a major problem especially facing younger generations who have felt the full blow of this new toxic era known as the information age. As great as all of our technological achievements are, it has not come without its downfalls, and we are losing essential qualities to being human: connecting with others and finding happiness. If so many of us want to be happy and want deep connections with others, why, as a whole, have these things become so brief?
We have lost our ability to connect with others. There is very little meaningful connection now. We are constantly being stimulated by our smartphones and social media profiles. We have replaced meaningful friendships and relationships with likes, shares, and followers. A sheer number is used to define our self-worth.
Recommended for you
Coming into the digital age, numbers are now representing us more than ever: our grades, SAT scores, followers, friends, likes, and weight as well. The latter is the stem of a beauty crisis that is sweeping the globe, especially in the eyes of girls. They need to be kept up to this impossible-to-reach standard, and they’re killing themselves doing it. This also is the stem of a myriad of other mental problems, including anxiety, depression, angst, and dread.
Another one of my concerns is our inability to find happiness. This realization just dawned on me recently, since I am now in the most content time in my entire life. I am not entirely sure how to explain why I feel this way, but I do not need to—the feeling is there and that is what matters. There is just so much going on around us or through social media that we always feel we need to concern ourselves with. And, even if we do feel that little bit of happiness, many of us drop back down into the cynical thinking that we were in before. It is so easy to be negative. We are quite a lazy species. There does not need to be a distinct reason as to why you feel happy, sometimes it can just happen, and many of us take it for granted. In a time of almost universal anger and brooding over everything around us, happiness is quite fleeting. However, that is why we must hold dear those moments when we do have that feeling, since there are many who almost never feel it.
When I walk into a room and see more than half of the people in there on their phones not engaging the world around them, it scares me greatly; it makes me lose a little bit of hope in our species, honestly. And, not to say that I am much better than everyone else because I do it as well, it makes me wonder how communication and connection will evolve in the future. However, when I see those select few people trying to engage and meet others, building the foundations of new relationships, it does brighten my day up immensely. It affirms that I am not alone in my concerns, and these are the people who we need to look up to, since they are the ones who are keeping the human connection alive.
