I have many qualms with the modern technological age. But, believe it or not, I’m writing this as a young millennial, because even we don’t like where we are going.
I grew up playing outside from sun up to sundown, whereas most of my friends would be playing Webkinz or Nintendogs on their various platforms inside. I was born at the turn of the century, where at the beginning, phones were still flipping and computers were still slow. As I grew up, I saw the evolution of our phone growing into being a part of our hands. I saw my friends replace imagination with screens. I felt like an outsider watching people connect in a way I was not used to.
When I got to college, social media was a make it or break it for friendships. Groups were established through social media months before school started. I thought that I would come into school and make friends the “old-fashioned way”, which was meeting people in real life. Another instance where I was an outsider trapped in the digital age which I did not understand.
My friends now have a saying called “disconnect to reconnect” in which we put our phones in a pile whenever we are in a restaurant together. It promotes quality time together, where we ground ourselves together in time and place. Too many times do I go out to eat and a group of people are sitting at a table in silence, all on their phones.
This is not to say that social media and technology is not a great advancement, because it is. It’s an amazing advancement. All platforms give us the ability to speak our minds, and I would not have the ability to connect with large audiences through my writing without it. But living behind a screen has become the norm.
It has brought itself to the outdoors, where you will find most people on their phones taking Snapchats rather than living in the moment and connecting with the world around them. Children are better at using my iPhone than I am. In a way, virtual reality has become the new reality.
Social media has created more issues in self confidence for the younger generation. It gives them an opportunity to show themselves in whatever way they want, making for it to be even harder to establish their own identity and individuality.
Our phones have established the best and the worst. It is a tool for distraction and procrastination but also for growth and free speech. Remember to "disconnect to reconnect" every once and a while, and that taking action in your words rather than hiding behind a screen is the most effective way to create change.
