Ask any member of any of the older generations what their biggest complaint about millennials are and odds are, you'll probably hear many of the same answers. We're lazy. We're entitled. We take everything for granted. But one thing you will hear over and over is our generations so called "obsession" with social media.
Now it is true. It is unlikely you will meet a teen or twenty-something in 2016 that doesn't have some connection to the social media universe or a smartphone in there possession at any given time Now, to deny that I might spend a little to much of my free time staring at the tiny screen I seem to always have in my pocket would be a bit of a fib. We're all guilty of it. But what our parents fail to understand is that social media is the way we communicate. It's the way we stay connected. It's our world.
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Back in the day, nightly radio or television programs or perhaps the morning newspaper were the primary ways news and information traveled. Landline phone calls and handwritten snail mail were the ways people kept up with friends and family who lived far away. But in the year 2016, we have connection to the world around us in our pockets and at the flick of a palm sized touch screen.
Now I may use my Twitter and Facebook accounts to occasionally share funny posts or joke around with friends, but social media can be used to so many other purposes. I use Twitter to keep up on world events by following popular new media outlets such as CNN and The Huffington Post. I use Instagram to share photos and life updates with friends who go to school out of state or family I only see a few times a year I use Twitter to meet and keep up with friends around the world, getting to see there ideas and world views from across oceans and continents. Even social media platforms such as Snapchat now have built in news outlets to keep users up to date on the live goings on of the world around then while using their apps.
It isn't all about instant gratification on a selfie or witty tweet. It's about crossing oceans. It's about networking. It's about connecting. It's about learning and exploring.
Things in this world are so much different that when our parents were kids. Just think of all the technological advances that have come about just in the past 16 years, and the ones that are no doubt just on the horizon.
Our social media is nothing to be ashamed of. We have the power of the world at our finger tips. So post a selfie. Follow a celebrity online. Check out an online new article. We are the technology and social media generation, and it's about time we stop apologizing for it.
