Social skills are crucial for young people’s life success and can be influenced by both positive and negative factors. A 1998 study found a negative relationship between screen time and social skills, including increased depression and loneliness. However, social media communities can also have a detrimental relationship, especially in areas of confidence and communication.
Social displacement is the idea that time spent on social media replaces face-to-face interaction, particularly with close friends and family. Concerns related to the negative effects of adolescent social media use include cyberbullying, exposure to inappropriate content, sleep deprivation, and internet addiction. Social media technology can be both a deterrent and a boost to youths’ sense of social well-being, depending on the nature of its use.
The findings suggest that social media use may neither harm nor benefit the development of social skills and may promote, rather than displace, offline interaction. If a teen’s social media engagement outweighs their in-person interactions, they may struggle to identify critical social cues such as body language, facial expression, and vocal tone and pitch. Digital screen time, even when used for social interaction, can reduce the time spent developing skills to read non-verbal cues.
Increased social media use was found to predict a decline in social skills among adolescents with higher levels of social anxiety. Some experts argue that teens can lose important social skills, while others believe that social media offers opportunities for a new connectedness. Social skills can be impacted by social media in both positive and negative ways, but selective and mindful use can strengthen them.
A new study by T Thomas found that increased social media use negatively correlated with participants’ overall social skills. Overall, social skills can be impacted by social media in both positive and negative ways.
📹 How Social Media is Destroying Society
When is the last time you’ve walked into a restaurant and saw an entire table of friends on their phone, each content to be in their …
How does social media decrease social skills?
Social media negatively impacts children’s social skills by replacing direct contact with peers, leading to callousness in communication and high anxiety during in-person conversations. It also negatively impacts teenagers’ mental health by limiting direct contact and encouraging constant comparison online, resulting in low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and increased feelings of depression, anxiety, poor body image, and loneliness.
How does social media cause less social interaction?
Social media usage is linked to increased feelings of isolation, with studies showing that people who spend more time on social media are at least two times more likely to feel socially isolated. This displaces authentic social experiences, as the more time spent online, the less time there is for real-world interactions. Shannon Poppito, a clinical psychologist at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, believes that people are disconnecting from real life and feeling less connected with themselves. Social media may be used to fill a void, but it has also created a new void in our lives through social comparison.
How does social media affect your socialization?
An excessive reliance on social media for socialization can result in the formation of superficial relationships, social isolation, mental health concerns, a diminished sense of privacy, polarization, and a lack of time for other pursuits.
How does social media affect your social interaction?
The nature of social media interactions frequently entails the use of text, images, or videos, which frequently fail to take into account nonverbal cues. This can result in a reduction in the quality and depth of these interactions, as well as an increased likelihood of misunderstandings in the interpretation of messages.
In what ways can social media discourage social interaction?
The use of social media has the potential to enhance our social connections, yet it can also diminish the depth and quality of face-to-face interactions. This can result in feelings of loneliness, isolation, and difficulty in forming genuine connections.
What are the negative effects of mass media on socialization?
The issue is affecting their social interactions, physical activity, cognitive thinking, and socialization abilities as a result of the reduction in time spent with friends and family.
What are 10 negative impacts of social media?
Social media is not the main issue, but rather the way people use it instead of in-person socializing. The “friends” on social media may not be friends, and increased usage can lead to cyberbullying, social anxiety, depression, and exposure to inappropriate content. Social media is addictive, as the brain releases dopamine and other happiness hormones when users succeed in tasks. However, it also contains mood-modifying experiences, fear of missing out, and self-image issues.
FOMO, or fear of missing out, is a common theme on social media, affecting mental health. Self-image issues are often linked to body image concerns, especially among selfie-holics and college girls who spend most of their time posting and scrolling. While social media provides a medium for it, it also promotes the same behavior to others.
Bullying is another issue that has been brought to a new level with social media and technology. The State of Rhode Island has anti-bullying laws and regulations, defining bullying as the use of written, verbal, or electronic expressions, physical acts, or gestures directed at a student.
In conclusion, social media is not the main problem, but it can lead to various negative consequences, including cyberbullying, social anxiety, depression, and the promotion of self-image issues.
How social media decreases face-to-face communication skills?
Online communication on social media often lacks nonverbal cues, leading to miscommunication and misunderstandings. The absence of these cues can strain relationships, especially when innocent messages are misinterpreted. The evolving landscape of online interactions has reimagined relationship dynamics, with conversations now taking place in digital spaces. These shifts can influence how couples express affection, resolve conflicts, and navigate intimacy, affecting the way couples communicate and connect in real-life relationships.
How does social media negatively affect social relationships?
Social media has negative impacts on relationships, including unrealistic portrayals of relationships and body image, digital jealousy and surveillance, and miscommunication due to the lack of nonverbal cues. Social media allows individuals to view others’ lives, but it often presents idealized versions of reality, leading to unrealistic expectations and body image issues. Digital jealousy can also breed insecurity, as misinterpreted comments or connections can spark distrust and conflict.
The ease of monitoring online activities can lead to unhealthy surveillance, eroding trust and causing strain on relationships. Additionally, text-based communication on social media lacks the nuances of face-to-face interactions, leading to miscommunication and misunderstandings, potentially straining relationships.
How is social media taking away our social skills essay?
People are increasingly using their phones more than talking face-to-face, which is neglecting basic social skills such as maintaining eye contact, posture, and using words. This excessive use of social media makes it difficult for people to identify the emotions being expressed by the people they are talking to, making it difficult to respond appropriately. Non-verbal aspects of communication, such as facial expressions and intonations, are essential for effective communication.
Approximately 93 percent of communication today is already nonverbal, and text does not convey the full range of intonations and facial expressions. This lack of understanding can cause confusion for other participants in the conversation, and texts may be interpreted differently due to their lack of emotion.
Using social media excessively affects individuals’ social skills when having face-to-face conversations. It is recommended that phones be used for boredom and alone, not when with friends, family, teachers, or coaches. A third of teens agree that using social media takes away time they could be spending with people face-to-face, and 44% agree that it often distracts them from the people they are with when they get together in person.
In conclusion, excessive use of social media is negatively impacting individuals’ social skills and limiting their ability to engage in face-to-face conversations.
Is social media hindering our face-to-face socialization skills?
Social media has become a crucial tool for people to stay connected and communicate, especially for those living far apart or with busy schedules. However, it has also led to the loss of important social skills, such as nonverbal communication, which is often more important than verbal communication in face-to-face conversations. As social media becomes a standard format for online interactions, individuals often never have to face each other, unlike the direct contact that was once the primary source of communication.
Direct contact allows communicators to expect instant feedback and consequences in response to their words, while social media may delay responses and make it difficult for communicators to expect direct contact with one another. As a result, social media is causing a decline in social skills and the ability to maintain face-to-face interactions.
📹 After A Few Minutes Of Social Media, This Happens – Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman
Dr Andrew Huberman explains what happens if you overuse social media. Does Dr Andrew Huberman think social media …
Man, I feel sorry for kids being raised on social media. Being in middle school, high school, and always comparing yourself to other people was tough back then. Today, there’s no escape from it because of social media. It’s constant. And god, the freedom of being able to go to a show and not feel compelled to film it. Of not worrying about missed calls, texts, of just being able to disconnect. Those days are gone forever
I live in Puerto Rico and during hurricane Maria when the power went out for 2 months and there was no internet, society starting to feel a lot better. People who you haven’t seen in years started to come around, we read books, played board games, TALKED, laughed together, listen to the radio, etc! Everything was feeling how it was before social media.
I did 8 years without any form of social media, I re-joined in 2020 and for the past 2 years it has utterly controlled my life! I physically felt addicted and could spend hours scrolling and perusal stupid articles. It’s given me self hatred about the way I look and feelings I’m not good enough. I became obsessed with taking photos of everything. I mean seriously even cups of coffee! What the heck! My sleep has suffered! I’ve felt low in mood… I’ve DELETED the lot of it again & I will not ever go back on it again. It’s dangerous and I’m done with it.
I got my first smartphone when I was in 6th grade and it all went downhill from there ever since. People of all ages today seem to become more and more dependent on the internet and social media that it’s actually crazy…I think things really started to change around 2008 when social media started to take a huge rise. perusal older movies or tv shows gives me a bit of a sense of what society was like. Back then people just seemed to be more authentic or happy in general. Everything was so much more genuine and I wish we could live like those times without all of this overwhelming toxic information from social media causing people to change so much
I’m 19, I hate when I hang out with friends and we’re trying to play games together and then they just stop playing and get on their phones. Or I’ll be talking to them and they just get on their phones while I’m talking to them. At least I put down my phone when people are talking to me or when I’m playing a game with someone, it’s like no one has manners anymore
I start teaching college chemistry in 1990. It was a joy. We had small classes so that I could interact with the students, even joke around. When they came to my office for additional help, we would have conversations about their future plans, my cats (I am a cat lady) and a broad list of topics. As the years went on, I found that both of these were decreasing. Students were more and more detached from the goings on in the classroom and they contributed less and less during our office time. Near my retirement, I felt like I was interviewing students that came to my office rather than having two way conversations. It was truly sad and I longed for the “good old days.”
The horrible thing about this is that, as much as you want to do things differently, you’ll find yourself isolated from others. For example, I’ve tried to reduce the use of my phone while at home with my family, esp during meals, but I’m the only idiot sitting there looking at nothing, because the people around me are glued to their phones and as soon as a meal is over, they go back to their rooms to keep being glued to the phone. I can get very boring, so I go back to the phone. It’s horrible to be isolated while being surrounded by people.
The very fact that I went searching for a article like this demonstrates that there are people who are overwhelmed and almost disgusted with what’s happening to society because of social media. I was raised in the 80s and I will tell you that I was much happier and more fulfilled before technology and social media entered the platform. For all of the very reasons this article explains. It’s extremely difficult when you know both sides of the equation. You know what it was like before social media and you know what it’s like with social media and it actually causes depression for my generation because we see how sad and unrealistic life has become. I actually feel sorry for Millennials and people that are younger than I am because this is their reality and they have never known a time when it wasn’t like this. I honestly think that social media and AI will be the end of society as we know it. We are human beings and we need other human beings or we would have not been created to be with them. Social media and Technology were created to bring the world together and to bring some sort of unity to the planet and it has done the very thing that it was created to do. We have never been more unhappy and divided as a country and as a planet. It is extremely sad
I was born in the 90s and I’m so thankful that my entire life up until I was about 15/16 was social media free. I truly had a wonderful and fun childhood without any of this garbage. Once Instagram came out (I remember being through the middle of high school) it was a game changer. Everything started changing – heck even Facebook! It all sucks now. I can’t have a conversation with basically anyone without them having to check their phone for something. It’s so frustrating how our online presence is more important than our in person presence. That how we look online matters more than how we look in person. That everything someone does they have to share it to prove how amazing their life is. What happened to staying present? What happened to just enjoying life with the people you love and not caring to impress everyone you dislike? I made a pact with myself this year, as I turn 25, that I’m done sharing my life on social media. It’s exhausting.
Before Social Media, people were happy to go to each other’s houses, play board games, go to the park, beach, picnics, or mall, go watch movies, or rent a DVD and have movie nights at home, and of course we had game nights, Friday was usually pizza night, go for sleepover at each others houses, play article games together instead of by yourself in your bedroom, and just do more outdoor activities. Nowadays, I don’t see kids playing at the park, I see very little people doing outdoor activities, everyone’s face is planted on their phone, people rarely go to each other’s houses, no one even knows who their neighbors are, no one plays those board games anymore, everyone is perusal TikTok shorts or some Instagram shorts instead of perusal a Movie together with family, there is no sense of community, culture, or shared values, everyone is lonely, sad, and miserable. I really don’t know where Humanity is going, we are living in a digital world, and with Metaverse, Virtual Reality Headsets, TikTok/Instagram/YouTube shorts, etc., people find their real life unbearable and everyone wants to escape to the digital world. This is basically 1984, A Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 novels all combined within a single Society.
To be honest, where I go, I feel alienated from all the people I’ve met. From my work, when I return home, and when I travel, people are so glued to their phones they just swipe their fingers to check on Social Media news feeds, and I’m the only one who’s very much focused on the present. Seeing how social media takes over the lives of many people nowadays just makes me feel very dissapointed
I know this article was made 2 years ago, but I’m sure more and more people are realizing now that social media is just getting worse. From fake news, censorship, users being very disrespectful to others and most of all, the amount of negativity. We all have choices and there will be a number who may disagree, but I feel so much better mentally having deleted all my social media apps. (Tic tok is the worst). Information overload is not healthy, and I’m choosing to ignore what’s happening in the world around me thats negative, and only worried about my family and what’s happening in my backyard.
Yeah I don’t find life to be that interesting as a whole in this social media digital age. It’s like everything caters towards technology and social media wayyy too much! It takes away from so many aspects of a persons life like their communication skills, their attention span, and most importantly their time. It’s like we live in a programmed world where everybody just wants to be the same, look the same, sound the same and do the same things and I blame social media for that. That’s why music/television/entertainment is so lackluster these days. Society has lost so much and these days are only defined by popularity, looks, and truly nothing that’s worth anything. Ugh I want it to all go away.
I’m still very young, but I know how many kids my age are slaves to social media. It’s scary, so many people in my school’s hallways are always doing TikTok dances or singing trending songs that’ll be considered “cringy” in a only few weeks. I used to have TikTok, I deleted it due to it lowering my attention span and taking up hours of my time each day. I’m much happier now than before with the only social media platforms I use YouTube and Pinterest. The sad part is the majority of people addicted to it will either believe that it’s not a problem or they know but don’t care. I remember a couple of years ago when everyone I knew wasn’t always like this. I miss it.
Even if you try to quit social media, literally every other person around you is also addicted to their phones, and eventually you end up relapsing as well. It has become impossible to escape digital distraction in this world. All of my classes are online, my study material is online, my entertainment is online, so I spend almost all my day on my phone. I can’t help it. Only taking classes and studying takes up at least 8 hours. The first 12 years of my life were without social media and any form of serious technology. Those were the golden years.
Social media is frustrating me. People take for granted for what is going outside. I posted a article inviting people to attend activities and events. People just ignore. Life was much better before social media. People communicated with each other and did real interactions. People are addictively struck in the digital world. I do not want to constantly to share stories digitally. I want people to have real conversations and engagements outside social media world.
I’m glad this is being addressed. I have seen too many instances of friends and relatives being together physically, but not mentally because of this addiction. I also believe that it has made some people ruder than they otherwise would be. It also interferes with some friendships if that friend, like many others, just cannot put down their gadget. I have a hard time not taking their impaired attention span personally, because my first thought is, “does she think I’m boring her or something?” I’m so tempted to just grab these things out of some people’s hands and say, “I’m talking to you!”, but I know the usual response will be something about how they’re really good at multitasking.
Even though I was born in 2007, I feel like a millennial. The first half of my life I was going outside and playing with my friends and playing on the legendary console known as the Wii where pretty much the only game that had internet access was Mario Kart. I remember my parents telling me not to watch too much TV or I would get addicted to it instead of the addicting thing being social media. Around 2017, my classmates all got phones, and even though I was only an 10 year old I knew about how it could affect your brain since they were always checking instagram or twitter. From that day I not only vowed never to use social media, but I also vowed to never get a phone. I lost all my friends because I told them I was never getting a phone, and from that day, I became an introvert and I read and played article games and made music by myself (I also watched YT but I didn’t and still don’t consider it as social media). My parents thought that I was the weird one for not being social, but I really couldn’t do anything about it. The dumb part about this is earlier this year when I was a freshman, my high school adapted a QR system to SIGN INTO YOUR CLASSES which means i was literally FORCED by the government to get a phone. 🙁 I still don’t have any social media except for Reddit for the occasional meme. (I really try to limit my YT and Reddit time and I am proud to say I’ve never spent more than 4 hours a day on them!) The sad part is that whenever I’m in a social setting, literally EVERYONE is on their phones and they seem more interested in talking about Twitter or Tiktok stuff more than actual topics.
I as many others on here find this trend sad. I was born in the early 90’s and also remember days of genuine connection. I studied the effects in my young 20’s, and as a result I stayed away from social media as much as possible. This led to a somewhat lonesome life after i finished university and everyone moved away. Many of my older friends saw my lack of social media pressence as an attempt to distance myself, when in reality it was a longing for more genuin connection. Many times i would go to a party with old friends, and I pretty much new all about their lifes. Yes I still used facebook, as a way to keep in touch. But I knew who peoples girlfriends were, what they did professionally, what hobbies they pursued, and so there was no need to ask my old buddies from my hometown: hey hows the love life going? Hopefully a trend will start that will take us on a different path.
It’s like when online, no one sees you as a real person anymore. I miss talking on the phone with those you met. I miss making real, come to my house for dinner type of friends. I think of all the years the internet has been around, all the 10’s of 1000’s of posts I’ve made on various sites, out of all of that, not a single friend (One, we met over a forum and became good phone friends for years, but we never met in person). Interaction online has become dehumanizing, we’re simply reduced to a ‘post’ or a ‘comment’, and nothing more or less.
I’m so glad that people recognise the dangers of social media and society’s over dependence on it. It’s crazy, because at my university, one of my lecturers encouraged us to ‘think critically’, and only ended up discrediting research which raises concerns about the negative effects of mobile phones and social media – his view seemed very swayed, and in denial of the negative effects of phones and social media.
For me everything changed when I went to high school. In middle school we were never allowed on our phone and my peers seemed more aware and happy. Now every time I look around I see Al least half of my classmates on their phones, even when the teacher is lecturing.I think the saddest part of all of this is my teachers don’t care because they rather have a bunch of brain dead,non verbal kids than rowdy ones
I was at a railway station in London recently, surrounded by thousands of people from all around the world, people of different ages, colours, religions, nationality… As I sat and looked around I realised that all these diverse groups of people just looked to me like zombies…. I was one of only a tiny handfull of people who was not staring at me mobile phone… It felt quite creepy looking around at literally thousands of people whowere all staring at a little 2 inch sceen.
I’m a 15 year old and this article could relate to what our society is today. I don’t even have social media, and that’s a good thing. I wish life was peaceful without what we do today. I’ve seen people in my school scroll on their phones because they have nothing to do. Personally, i would never scroll on my phone. I used to scroll on my phone looking for games to download, but I don’t do that anymore. I’m an introvert and I don’t go out as much as I used to do. I don’t drink, I don’t party, etc. Nowadays, people attract sex, drugs, money, college dating, etc. Sex and drugs are horrible. Like wtf. I don’t have to be around people. I used to be an extrovert, but I stopped interacting with all my friends. I read, write, play, and I watch TV. I don’t like our society. It’s terrible. That’s my opinion.
I miss the time when kids played with toys and went to the park to play. Social media companies need to be held responsible for what they’re doing to society. When a teenager commits suicide because of something that happened to their digital identity, we should charge the board of directors of the offending platform with manslaughter and confiscate the company’s profits. It should not be legal to make billions from a drug that destroys people’s lives, but that’s exactly what social media is doing to our youth. Thanks for the excellent article! I’m seeing more and more people waking up to this reality, hopefully we can actually do something about it as a society.
Social media existing is not the problem, but the mismanagement of social media nowadays is DEFINITELY the problem. Bring back how it was in the 2000s decade and maybe early 2010s as well. Around 2016 or 2017 is when social media really started to become a problem to me. Trust me I know because I started using social media accounts around that time. Actually I started using the internet around 2008 or 2009 when I was about 6. YouTube is one of the only internet sites I use on a regular basis anymore because the 2020s internet is completely toxic these days.
I miss simpler times. When I was growing up we were way more at peace than I realized. The more technology and social media grows the more angrier people are getting the more disconnected socially and the more politics and other ideologies are intertwining in our decision making. It is a cancer. Technology has helped in so many ways but it is also destroying our children and causing a wake of destruction culturally
I went out to dinner last night with a friend that I didn’t see for 7 years. At times she was in her phone. I had to stop the conversation to see if she was listening. I’m like damn, I could see if I was with my 23 year old son. (Full grown mature people behaving like children) I definitely will address this with her. I think it’s foolishness🤷🏾♀️
Born in the 01, it’s sad how people in this generation thinks that you need to have social media so you can keep in contact with your friends and families even though phone numbers and letters through p.o. box still exist! And people forget that old school cameras still exist and don’t realize that pictures on your phone won’t really last long because you might accidentally delete them without knowing.
I think social media it’s a double-edge sword. If you use it to learn new things about the world or your career they can be helpful and powerful. However, most people just feed their ego and narcissim in these platforms. I think it has done more harm than good tbh, but that’s my opinion. I’m really curious where the world will go to in the next few decades. I always thought that sharing pictures on social media would be the equivalent of inviting hundreds of people to take a peek at your bedroom and private life, but you can’t see who actually came and is perusal. Definately not my thing.
The concept of spending 4 or 5 HOURS (an afternoon) LISTENING to an elderly person relate things from their life 60 or 70 years ago (or even longer!) and before cassette recorders (sadly) or article cameras (even sadder) is something I almost cry about. I had 80, 90 and even 100 year-old lucid relatives that told me stories about them growing up, and about THEIR GRANDPARENTS that may have lived with them in THEIR old age!!! I had a vision of MY family back over 150 years as PEOPLE with quirks and personalities and tastes in food, and illness and deaths of children and hardships that brought tears to my eyes. It was MUCH better than perusal U-toobs and I don’t do fakebook or stuff on a phone. BTW, now I’M an old person-a child of the 50’s-a boomer.
I was born in the year of 2002, I am diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder, my childhood wasn’t that great feel like I wasted much of my childhood, I was very shy, had no friends, but it felt different when I was younger at elementary school when there was no social media there was so many kids playing in recess enjoying in elementary and people all used to talk to one another and make jokes, but me just confused, quiet, and shy and dumb. When I first got my phone I was young and 11-12 that time games all from google play and youtube destroyed my whole late teens to be able to socialize, make friends, or talk to people during school. It felt like hell for me just a life like of depressed/anxiety.Recently got bullied at 7th grade, and 9th grade too. It wasnt that fun because I had no idea the phone was damaging my social life the entire time! And me look dumb. ALL because of those freakin apps!.I was slow. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone because I don’t trust no one I finally woke up and during 11th grade high school at realized that social media is my cure of what I am experiencing from being myself who I really am. Then what pisses me off is that almost every class that I went to people always use their phones and only up to 3 people including me participate to talk about what teacher is teaching us. I find it very disturbing to all the people in the class not trying to socialize to each other. Which makes it extremely hard for me to make some friends because it looks depressing and I don’t want to be first one to go and start a conversation with a buddy beside me and the rest just silent using their phones, completing their work, them sleeping of their desks, and others just want to be alone listening to music.
I deleted Facebook and twitter for good a few weeks ago and I also noticed I had to take distance from the news because they sometimes have the same impact on me ! So I watch the news once every 2 weeks and I have YouTube remaining+ Instagram for my business (I follow 7 people) ! It feels better. Social Media were totally different before but as you say in your great article, many people feel it has gone out of control !
Great article, the problem for the new generation is that they grew up carrying a phone. They don’t have a measure of comparison meaning they just don’t know how better the relationships were before the social media. It is not natural to have your phone always with you as if it were an extension of your body.
I primarily use my phone when I’m on the toilet, searching for something I need to know, or browsing for something interesting or educational on YouTube. When I go out for a walk, go to a public place, or to hangout with friends I always have my phone away so I can enjoy life and the scenery. I always feel like the only one though because everyone else is either sitting there or walking while glued to their phone.
Not only has it changed the friendships we build in the real world, but it has also made people lose their humanity. All I see is people trying to find faults on others and bring each other down. Sometimes when I keep going back on my phone several times a day I just wish I could grab it and throw it out the window.
Taking a trip down Twitter is enough to be depressed and lose hope to the point of never wanting to socialize with another human being again. Someone saves a life, people will be mad Someone does anything good, people will be mad Someone dies, people will make memes out it All in all you don’t really see people with this type of behavior in person but online it’s like you’ve entered hell for free
One thing I noticed is that being an apprentice is no longer an option in life. People don’t learn from each other anymore- they go online where there is no interaction with others. I am very knowledgeable about many things but no one tries to pick my brain – they go online instead which is what everybody is doing because it requires no personal social skills to extract information and only requires you to be technically inclined. People will soon forget how to get along with each other because of their lack of societal experiences.
I remember only playing article games on my PC on discs and my mothers old SNES, no phone, no social media, perusal good 90s 00s cartoons on TV. And now? Always on the phone, worried about posting on social media, staying inside way more, only playing games and perusal shows on my Xbox its kinda crazy to think life would be this different within a decade or two
People are not even all that connected. They probably do not interact with anyone online and just learn about things or be entertained. I used to socialize online, but it became harder over time, although I did gain social skills out of it. I just noticed that nobody would take my time seriously. Most people are just treating it as an amusement so that those who rely on it for social activity are more helpless. They actually do focus on their offline friends more than anything and those who have no offline friends or otherwise social network have no traction. YouTube may be the easiest place to get my voice heard in comments, but it is also the least likely for anyone to care about another person through because of lacking interactive features without articles.
I use to have a Facebook account, but one day I just had enough. I was absolutely fed up of receiving notifications on the most meaningless cr@p from my so-called ‘friends’. Usually it was either someone back stabbing someone else, or it was what they had to eat that day. Nearly 10 years free of that nonsense, and I can honestly say I don’t miss anyone on there. Fuck em.
Im 14, and im proud to say i don’t have social media (I use YouTube though) but yeah. Its genuinely soo sad seeing everyone in my class becoming slowly crazy and addicted to social media. I don’t care if my clothing style is 2000s stuff that everyone thinks is ugly. But anyway i feel soo guilty for being born in the year i was. I get soo jealous seeing older people talk about how great the 70-2000s were and i just feel soo sad and left out i wish i was born earlier so i can brag about how i grew up before social medie/phones
I was born in 2002 india, so I spent most of my childhood without ADDICTIVE social media. Back in my teens, I used Facebook to only play games, and that too with friends (miscrits if anyone remembers). Also, the world used to be a lot less competitive and people were actually good by heart. There was also no flexing culture and people were quite social as well. There was also a perfect balance between being religious and open-minded. It was peak humanity. These days everyone is self-centred, main reason being social media, and this is the leading cause of unhappiness
I feel like my childhood and teen years were so golden. So grateful to have played outside, gotten the best article games at the right age, and never even held a flip phone until late high school. For so long I tried to figure out why my mental health declined so drastially after high school was over. Social media, smartphones, etc. are a huge part of it. I loved the days of chatrooms and talking to a bunch of different friends on AIM (with all the blinking windows minimized hahaha), but texting back and forth drains and annoys me. I’m somewhat of a loner but I don’t even try to seek out in person interactions anymore because I know people will just be on their phones, and when you want to actually be present with someone who’s not (really) there with you, that’s the absolute worst.
Friends online are not friends. Friends who help you when you’re in need are true friends. Also kids growing up in a world of social media is like teaching them to snort drugs at extreme early ages. Highly addictive. How many 20+ year olds can put thier devices down after been brought up on them since childhood. Very few.
I was born in 1983 and I’m in your boat. I feel historically, mine and your generation will be such a special case because we physically know what life was like before digital and technical advancements. I truly miss those Friday nights going to get a pizza, swinging by blockbuster and renting one movie and one articleGame then going home in time to watch TGIF with my parents until Hugh downes and Babers Walters ruined my family fun time with 20/20. Then Saturday morning cartoons til 11, and after that building treehouses and playing ball with the neighbors and cousins, no cell phones or social media….. Man, memories
First time I realized how obsessed with phones people around me were was in 7th grade when I broke mine and had to use a button phone, I had to tell all my friends to put their phones in the middle of the table when we went to a cafe, cause otherwise no one talked to each other. I’m grateful to have grown up in the early 00s cause although technology & social media was used, I still got to live a fairly technology free childhood. Nowadays, I gotta say I do have issues with overusing my phone, but I am as present as possible when interacting with people in real life. Also, I’ll definitely do my best to raise my future children with as little technology involvement as possible.
In middle school, I found a pair of trees in the corner of the PE area and I built a fort out of branches and twigs from the around the trees. Although, after a few days, it ended up getting demolished. Now, in high school, the teachers would not let me touch a puny stick, because of “safety concerns.” My parents would not let me cross the street to go to places in the neighborhood next to ours because of stranger danger, but when they left, I ended up conquering their fears by going a full circle around the neighborhood and going back home unscathed. One day, in summer break, I saw a pile of branches from many palm trees. I put down my phone and started to experiment with these branches by making structures out of them. It was then in which after a period of of being cooped within an ever-shrinking comfort zone, I was able to rediscover my ability to build with materials provided by the local ecosystem. Can’t us young people have a chance to coexist with nature & the unknown instead of being cooped up in a world of phone addiction & constant fear of risk?
it really is a shame that it’s become a bad thing to not have social media. especially tik tok and twitter. of course all of my friends have them, and whenever i don’t pick up on a trend that’s happening, they get annoyed. one of them even tried to install tik tok, another one instagram, both of which i don’t have, and won’t for years to come. they’re all not bad people, just misguided.
As a “oldie” and working part time a younger guy and I talk about what it was like when my gen was younger. Phones, you avoided, politics, bull crap go out and do stuff with out parents hovering over you. He said he wishes he grew up with out all the static. It was a simpler time but the world changes, word life!
I am going to x-post this Quote from my own recent English Essay about the Internet, both on pessimistic and optimistic articles about social media. “The Internet and social media amplify all qualities, negative or positive. The Internet is widely an example of how “good becomes great, bad becomes worse.”” “All social media platforms are double-edged swords. All double-edged swords have a dark side, but they also have a bright side.”
I’m happy that a lot of us are aware of this problem, and deciding to overcome it is something to get used to, but what really scares me is what the future has for us… I hear from people around me how they’re raising their children before they even have their first birthday with an ipad in front of their face, and it really worries me that the next generation won’t be able to differentiate what’s reality and what’s not. It’s gonna be a new problem we’ll have to face in the future.
What’s interesting is that for me before the pandemic I took a job as a fundraiser, so I intentionally had the responsibility of going door-to-door and talking with people. Having a routine and talking with others seemed to get rid of that fear I had of approaching others even if they were on their phone. People just need to practice mindfulness and intentionality when taking with others.
Born in 1985, I’ve seen first hand and still remember very well life before social media. I miss it like crazy! I never did like Facebook, even in 2010 when my mom got sucked into it by other family members. However, I didn’t really notice the negative impact social media has truly had on society until the last few years or so, especially since my dad passed away. Because we were so close and neither one of us were much into that stuff, we just kind of did our own thing and was like “whatever” to those glued to their phones. Now with him gone, I’ve really noticed how so many people seem so uninterested in one another and basically ignore each other, and just how hard it is to make friends now because of it. And every time you ask someone to do a simple favor for you, they either treat you like a possible axe murderer or just go “look it up online/do it online, it’s easier.” A lot of people just give off a phony/shallow vibe these days in general, too. I’m so grateful to have grown up back when society was still more “normal” and people actually seemed to care for and respect each other a lot more than they do today. Unfortunately, I kind of took it for granted then, and since I was a quiet and awkward kid then, I didn’t fully take advantage of when it was easier to make friends. I’ve missed the 90’s and early 00’s for well over a decade now, but this social media and the awful affect it’s had on people, in general, makes me long for those days now more than ever!
I got rid of most of my social media platforms 13 months ago. I have Reddit which is anonymous and barely counts. I also have Pinterest and YouTube which you can comment but meh. I got rid of Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. I never even entertained the idea of having tick tock. I am honestly a lot happier. I’ll never go back. I’m a better employee and I use that extra time to give back to my community. It makes me feel like a person a again. Being on social media made me feel like an NPC
We living in a social media world everyone wants to be liked commented on, fuelling egos to the point too concerned about the opinions of others, anxiety to the point people compare themselves too much to others. People don’t believe in themselves get depression to the point get put on some sort of medication feel hopeless then have no belief it’s scary what media has done to people. If you want my advice quit media and live life. You find most people on media ain’t living healthy or honesty and those who are ain’t on media are living with more mental peace and more honesty.
After a lot of time on social media I have no confidence as an individual, feel like I’m part of multiple groups at war with each other. Gender/nationality etc etc, I quit social media hope I can interact with people without feeling put in conflicting groups & feeling paranoid again one day. Just chat to strangers in a pub about common ground without the weirdness
There is advantages in using social media and internet like we can do research, we can see entertainment and gather or share information. But nowadays people or even childrens using social media and different platforms inappropriate ways. Being addicted into using gadgets or social media may affects also the health and wellbeing. But at the end, it depends upon the user on how they’re going to control themselves in using it.
The greatest revelation of the social media revolution for me, is how much manipulation was, and still is taking place via the “regular” media outlets. I can now draw my own conclusions on current afairs, based on a mulitude of opinions from a wide range of perspextives and be my own judge on what is true or not.
I’m 38 years old. I have no kids because I knew this would happen. I remember when MySpace came out. I was about 19-20. Then I got a cell phone and texting. Just this past Christmas was pathetic. The teens/kids don’t talk. They are so underdeveloped and lack social skills bc they live on their phones and computers. But it seems like many parents don’t care and they are my age which is sad.
I just turned 33 a couple weeks ago. My childhood was 1989-2001 and my teenage years were 2002-2010. I’d say my favorite era as far as technology goes, was probably 2002-2007. Before smartphones and social media. I truly feel that social media is destroying the construct of our society. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen our country so torn, and it breaks my heart. Especially loving my nation so much that I decided to enlist in the military to serve it.
Early 2000s had just the perfect amount of technology. We had high speed internet, and even cell phones that could text. We still had social media but it wasn’t like this. I see kids today unable to even pass through typical adolescent adjustment. I’m terrified for who these people will be as adults.
I think the biggest problem with social media that nobody really talks about is how much of a disonest platform it is. The people you meet there aren’t real people, they are brands. Social media is a storefront where people come to promote themselves. There are no problems there, only happy, outgoing consumers, and I think this is affecting our attitude towards each other in the “analog” world as well. We have less and less patience with problems and personal stories, and are easily bored if we aren’t entertained fast enough. Humanity is being replaced with social branding.
As someone who never uses even a mobile phone I can relate to this. I look round me and everyone is addicted. People can’t talk to another while waiting 3 minutes for their coffee. Kids babysat by a tablet. I believe most addicts, which are most people, have no idea just how vast and harmful this is on both individual and societal levels. My family and friends think I am a luddite and get frustrated with me. They don’t seem to see what I do. The symptoms are scary. Technology is now controlling the masses rather than the masses using technology selectively. As an addiction that will be too much for many to even care with an attempt to regain control.
I’m 15, and I would say as when I was 7-10, it was the perfect mix of online interaction and real world interaction. I would go play outside with friends but I would also watch YouTube, play playstation/wii, etc. And sometimes friends would come over to play Minecraft/ smash bros. Those were the good ol days
I remember the day I noticed a shift in how we communicate. This was late 2000’s / maybe early 10’s, I was a kid and I was at home with my mom and Aunt. My aunt was upstairs while my mom and I were downstairs. Instead of yelling up the steps or walking up / down to talk to each other; they texted. And it was so weird to me
I was born in 1995, raised homeschool. “Video games” were “the addiction” to be aware of according to my parents. I didn’t get a phone till age 14 the year was 2008 and back then it felt so silly and fun, nothing like now how it feels like a social standard. People were silly and super authentic on YouTube, there was so many people just testing it out. I think we’re all still just testing it out. I wouldn’t label it as all good or all bad but the pendulum will swing both ways and then hopefully land in a peaceful middle.
Something is gained and lost with every change in society. I’ve severely cut back on social media because I realized the bulk of it isn’t actually “real”, It’s full of bots, people making fake or empty gestures, hypocrisy, etc. However I did find some great friends and communities through it. I’ve enriched my life and skills through DIY tutorials, markets, etc. Sure there’s things I miss about the old days, and things I sometimes wonder about from times I never seen. It’s up to us to say “when”, using our conscious mind. We only have so much time, use it as best you can.
I’m 17 and I’ve grown up where not many people had a phone or anything like that after living in a city for the last 8 years I find it really strange I’ve never used a mobile phone and hope not to I can barely talk to people in any school or anything they all seem insane and so so sad all the time like they make a point and try to force them self to be unhappy they don’t seem genuinely unhappy it’s a strange forced sadness
Social Media really worsened my depression and feelings of loneliness. Everytime, I see my “friends” have a MyStory on Messenger/FB I feel alone because I aren’t there in those stories. I always hated my friends because they always make me feel alone. Like I am some kind of background character forgotten by many. They always say “Why I am shy?”. Utterly bullshit! I am not shy, I just an introvert. And besides they always don’t notice my presence. These “friends” of mine are always absorbing useless information from the social media. Seriously, even the things they see on social media are so shallow, they laugh at it. The one who comes up with Social Media had good intentions in the first place. However, it corrupted many of us making us disconnected with each other. Those who are popular thrive in this rotten platform, while those who aren’t left with depression, insecurity, and loneliness
“It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own. If a god appeared to us – or a wise human being, even – and prohibited us from concealing our thoughts or imagining anything without immediately shouting it out, we wouldn’t make it through a single day. That’s how much we value other people’s opinions – instead of our own.” -Marcus Aurelius
This is what happens to a society when social media apps are created without any regard or thought to human psychology. It plays on our fears and mob mentality condition. When Facebook and Myspace first started it was almost an extension of the modern telephone to chat and share ideas. When twitter came in with the re tweet button and Facebook like buttons it went downhill from there. You essentially have given every 3 year old on the planet now a microphone with no off switch. Everyone has to say something no matter how absurd or ignorant they are. Everyone is seeking validation or looks and beauty. Its sad as a species how we lack forethought. It takes mass destruction or death before we make a change. Like plastic. The scientist who created plastic forgot to ask the one simple question? How do I get rid of it? Look where we are today with plastic and pollution of the planet. Social media apps? No one stopped and thought what is the impact this could have on society? All the years and knowledge of Psychology ignored and forgotten. They could have easily done controlled study’s with these apps before releasing them to the wild. But the creators hold no accountability. I create here it is. I am glad to have grown up in a time without all this garbage. I didn’t get my first cell phone till I was 18 and and people were still people but not to the degree we see today. It really puts a spot light on the decay of society and sadly its only going to get worse. I don’t see any positives that social media offers today.
I was born in 85 the last generation of good people. I used to rent VHS from blockbuster listen to music on my Walkman cassette and save my computer studies work on floppy disk. When I wanted to catch up with friends I went and knocked on their door. I wouldn’t change it for the world. This generation have no respect and will inevitably lead to the destruction of the human race.
We kind of know how it changes human behavior, just look at generation z, how disconnected from the word and reality that they seem, their social skills are practically nonexistent and anything that they do is based around the stuff that they experience on social media platforms controlled by algorithms that keep them locked inside a bubble of ignorance to any other word views, witch in term have made them extremely fragile to outside opinions, and they keep themselves locked in those bubbles by using sentences like okay Boomer, so they don’t have to listen, and their behavior of a 5 year old child in a grown person’s body, says it all, they are basically just children, because they never needed to grow up, everyone in their peer group, was thinking exactly like themselves, so they never had any thing to change them, and giving these people the attention that everyone is giving them now a days, just makes them even more crazy and narcissistic. They need a cold shower, and someone to act as a real parent too them, otherwise they will be stuck in childhood for the rest of their lives.
It goes beyond just social media. People have become android robots. Texting, email, social media all of it. I was walking up with 3 boxes to a UPS store the other day, this guy walking out typing into his phone unaware of me in front of him. I purposely didn’t move. Crashed right into him. Boxes hit the ground. He just kept going, un-phased by what just happened, didn’t look back or say a word. That’s what we’ve become..
I remember back in the 2nd half decade of this century, you’d see kids playing ball on the street or seeing a lot of kids at the park. Now they are all on devices. Literally where I’m living it used to be full of activities now it’s so empty it’s almost rare to see a large group of people. It’s pretty sad.
I’d love it if they shut down the Internet. We could go back to socialising the good old fashioned way. Children would avoid tech zombification…. Everyone’s a winner. Additional. Just think how many marriages or relationships have been damaged and destroyed by Facebook, Whatsap, Strava, Messenger etc etc. I bet many poor souls that read this, know the pain these sites have caused.
I’d like to express my feelings about social media here. social media help us to make things work more faster and easier, it even influenced people all around the world about the truth of bias and prejudice. it is an eye opener to some people, to some teens. the bad thing is, almost all of us depends on social media, it is like one of the most necessary things of human nature…although it is manmade. it will never be the same as it was before. some can’t work without social media, some use social media for entertainment, some use social media for help, some use social media for money. it is a privilege to be born in an advance world but sometimes i wonder and think, life could have been more fun if people interact more personally. I LOVE SOCIAL MEDIA. I ONLY HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE CROSSED THEIR LIMITS.
I take a look to my Facebook profile often All because I want to stay connected to my friends But while staying connected I just get into Facebook and can’t get out of the addiction that repeats for getting interested on notification bells and waste time on Facebook articles I just realize I’m in a fake world where there’s no compassion or be real . I hate Facebook. So even if I miss my friends I swear from this day on I’ll never come to Facebook and other social media app. Good bye social media Hello people .
I grew up in the 80’s and early 90’s. I can tell you there is nothing better (comparing these times and looking back) what he just first described. These kids would argue to the hilt that they know better, but it is sad a child has to grow up in these technological times. Life WAS better and when you saw new technology come out, it was looked at with amazement and excitement. For instance, the Nintendo 8 bit and Sega Genesis. Lol There is nothing to appreciate anymore, as its just growing, changing, and moving too fast. I just cannot relate to most 20-35 years olds anymore. They are passive aggressive; spaced out, rude and lack even basic social skills and common sense…..not to mention that they also know EVERYTHING, yet know nothing.
Observing groups using their phones at the gym was a revelation. Increasingly more people are becoming irritable and impatient, although I’m not sure if these two are related. Furthermore, I have to repeat myself 3 times before people realize I am talking to them. It’s an issue that has translated into personal and professional life, but like everything else I will adapt.
Its much more simple a problem than what is being portrayed. The vast majority of online interactions are done through text based communication. The removal of the body language and speech cues that we all usually rely on leaves us paranoid and unsure. Add on to that the fact that information, whether true or false can travel around the globe in minutes, and whatever the loudest ppl on the net shout becomes the “truth”, whether fact or fiction.
Jackie chan ever said the greatest human invention is the smartphone, because smartphone kills radio, computer, camera, paper money, newspaper, our identity, torch, watch, clock, our awareness towards surroundings, and our health. He also said smartphones can create a new generation that only playing with their phones
I remember before 2011 when smartphones became affordable. We would all hang out after high school, play article games while eating chinese food, play guitar or other instruments, get on our bikes and/or skateboards around town and grab food and drinks at the gas station and ride around doing tricks for hours, come back to our friends home and do a quick computer break where we each had 15 minutes of myspace time and perusal articles, we’d all sit at a dining room and all chat without a phone in our hand. The phones we did have were regular flip phones and we’d only look at it if we had a legit reason or if someone was calling. Times were great. Man I feel old af lol.
I absolutely HATE social media and social networking sites 😤😡😤😡‼️‼️‼️‼️Facebook is among the worst of the bunch ! The ONLY good & useful thing about the Internet is YouTube because I can learn something new, get the latest news, and watch clips of old movies & TV shows among other things like that !
im at the point now im starting not to want anything to come across my eyes and ears and into my brain. its making me sick day by day. im turning tv and computers off. my mind feels weighed down from looking at screens daily. every minute we spend browsing and iewing things are minutes we could be putting toward things we want or want to become. think of how many years we lost out on when you add up every minute we spend on the internet
I got a smart phone when i was 13, the iPhone 6 ahh yes. the first couple of years i barley used it but as i got older and into high school i became to attached to it. but recently i gave it up along with social media. i still have my phone but its usually stored in my drawer turned off. i find that im a lot more productive & happier with out it. kinda like i was from ages 13-15. plus i have a home pc. i dont really need a smart phone. its kinda sad the majority of my family are addicted to their phones like i was. always scrolling.
Look man I’m 13 and I just hate how society is now I wish I was born in the 90 or 80 where it was fun and high school was fun not everybody just on there phone in the hallway or all this lgbtq stuff but that’s just an opinion I’m perfectly fine with gay and lesbian or bi but all these other one like femboy like that’s just such a over sexualized and it sucks because like I can go through look for group posts on Xbox just tryna play some dam Minecraft all I see is “looking for femboy boyfriend” like can it just be simple again and all this self diagnosed stuff to get attention I mean autism is a real thing and people are faking it to try and get attention or get other peoples validation like how do you think other people diagnosed symptoms feel about you guys using them for attention and then fake depression killing them selves cuttting lines for attention I mean dam bro just have fun in life and don’t worry what other people think and ya it’s ok to seek some validation from other people some criticism but that’s how you learn in life but mainly only worry about self validation it’s just sad because the worlds got what 5 billion years left before the sun explodes and it’s just gonna get worse oh and let’s not leave out this feminism like these women that want men dead like dam bro can’t we just all get along but I know that’s not gonna happen oh and all these lgbtq people saying Catholics or Christian’s are shoving beliefs down there throat like man we’re not shoving anything we’re spreading the gospel doesn’t mean you have to believe it but then they say we’re homophobic and that we need to be okay with lgbtq it’s not fair I mean us people with religious beliefs don’t have catholic month Christian month or parades we don’t get ads on Spotify or YouTube like I mean it’s kind of illegal for a school to spread religious beliefs but they put up posters talking about lgbtq beliefs like be gay cool go ahead but geuss what I don’t care that doesn’t mean you have to let the whole world know and then the lgbtq community gets mad at people for getting annoyed but what do you expect when there is constant advertisement of it in my face all day like pop up ads like it’s ok to spread it here and there just like religion spreading the gospel hear and there but stop forcing it on to people just do you and be happy(I know I’m prob gonna get arguments in the reply’s but this is my opinion so just keep the conflict subtle)I’m also not saying every girl is a feminist there’s is so many that are great people I just hope they were all like that and that goes for men to we’re not perfect either I get it some can be pretty big as holes