Our generation is often criticized for lack of interaction, meaningless relationships, and an inability to live outside the virtual world of our phones. We’ve all been told while among family to put down our phones and talk to our long lost cousin or the great aunt we can never seem to remember. Older generations fear for our loss of family values and "real world" experiences. They believe that while on our phones, we forgo sensualizing the world around us and lose out. But while all they see is us mindlessly staring at our three-by-three inch retina displays, they don’t see all the ways that constantly being connected actually enhances our experiences.
For so long inventors and artists alike sought after a way to capture reality in a picture. Hours of technique and tinkering were devoted to the art of snapshotting life. But until the camera was made available to the general public, we had no way of truly embodying the reality of the world and society. Now with cameras carried with us wherever we go, we can capture memories, small reminders of our day that we would have otherwise forgotten. Whether it is that amazing meal we ate for lunch, the quaint bookstore we discovered, or vacation photos, it can all be organized into a perfect collection on Instagram. And the best part is that the photos are there to stay! Photo albums and scrapbooks get tucked away in an attic for our grandkids to find. The scrapbook of our generation are the archives of our Facebook accounts, or even the long forgotten Myspace. We now have the ability to log into these websites 10, 20, and 30 years from now to see what our 15 year old selves were feeling, thinking, listening to and re-read old conversations with the friends we’ve since forgotten. Unless they kept a day-to-day journal, no other generation has instant access to the persona of their youth. Whether it be for laughs or to relive our glory days, we all love yearbooks. Social media is a way of capturing minute details not important to otherwise compile into a book.
A major critique of our generation is that we just lazily sit on our phones and fail to become active and create memories. This is anything but true. It’s due to social media that I have had more fulfilling experiences. Instead of sticking to the same restaurants, stores and routines, I learn from my peers. Geotags share us with locations of the best looking sushi in town, or a secret hiking spot hidden away. By sharing out experiences we are actually opening the doors for others to create their own experiences. If people see many others partaking in a new activity, they might be more likely to try the new trends.
Older generations speak of lost human connectivity. They may look into a room of five young adults and see all of them on their phones with seemingly no interaction. However, the truth is, those same individuals might be holding six different conversations at that moment. No longer are the days when you have to forgo communication with your best friend or significant other for periods of time. Instant communication allows us to share our experiences with those closest to us without having to wait until our next encounter, or the many days it would take to communicate through mail. So while our parents and grandparents may scoff at our dull lives, we know that it is anything but. Social media is not making us solitary and stationary, but allowing us to better document every moment of our youth.
