Social networking’s intent is to connect people around the
world and allow us to communicate more effectively, but is it really
working? While it is true that sites
like Facebook and Twitter enable us to talk to our friends and family who may
live far away from us, it can make you somewhat less social when you are
interacting with others in real life.
Sitting behind a computer and typing away might make you less
comfortable when you have to actually talk in person.
Just think about it. This generation is obsessed with
knowing what others are doing at any given hour of the day and wanting others
to know what we are doing. This is
called FOMO (pronounced FO-MO), a growing phenomenon which means “fear of
missing out.” Here’s a few interesting
statistics:
- · 23% of people go on Twitter more than 10 times a day
- · 90% of 18-29 year olds sleep with their phone in or beside their bed
- · The average worker checks his or her email 36 times an hour
Random people were quoted to have said, “Sometimes I wake up
in the night and reach for my phone so I can do a Tweet,” and “I take pictures
of my food, my feet…pretty much anything and post it online.” Much of society is convinced that they can’t
live without social media and tend to overuse it.
While social networking is useful and a lot of fun, cutting
down your usage (or if you want to make a drastic change, simply not using them
at all) can be beneficial to you. First
of all, your self-esteem will be boosted.
When you’re not constantly comparing yourselves to your peers and
reading about everyone’s accomplishments, you will feel a lot better about
yourself. You also save yourself the
trouble of getting into silly arguments over petty things on the Internet. Finally, you won’t be missing out on a lot of
life’s great moments because of the fact that you’re too plugged into
technology. Now, don’t get me wrong,
social networking is a great part of life, but know where to draw the line.
