The Social Animal : How social media is impacting our lives

We have always come across the statement “human is a social animal ”.However, according to me, it has NOW stepped up to the new fancy of digital life making them social media animals.

Social media has, lots of positives whether it is showcasing your talent or digitally marketing the products, connecting with friends you lost touch with or helping people in their personal growth. Not only this, it has made people love themselves and feel confident by the reactions and comments they receive. For many, it is a platform to get to know every small bit of your role model. According to data, our country stands second in the world in terms of android phone users as well as internet usage after china. This includes both urban as well as rural India. One loves to be free to post content without depending on anyone which reaches a large audience and helps in having an open and direct connection with them. Not just that, feedback that helps one improve and grow, social media has it all. It’s great to see we are increasingly adopting digital in all spheres including education, online marketing, digital payments and work from home in the new normal. All this has made each one of us comfortable with the growing technology. One must always remember that every good thing comes with a huge price which is often ignored or we just don’t want to accept.

We never try to realize the other side of the coin. Recently, I had a conversation with my little cousin. Innocently he asked how many friends I had to which I replied I have a few with whom I share things and celebrate. Surprisingly he started making fun of it and said “I have around 1200, you are elder to me. Be social”. This is just an example. A large number of virtual connections across social media are now called friends with whom you hardly share your failures, no makeup shabby faces, not well dressed in the way you are. And what a wonderful place it is you hardly have any attachment or any emotional connection with the people you call your friends or connections ! On the contrary, it has become a huge platform for trolls to release their frustrations by being hurtful and commenting unnecessary (and often vulgar) things which give them a sense of pride just by sitting on the other side. What a wonderful way of communication is this ! (pun intended)

Emotions which are the most important part of conversation have now been restricted to emojis, gifs, and stickers. People often predict the mood of others by the emojis they use. We have moved over waiting for our facial muscles to become vestigial in the next few years. The social extroverts who are brilliant at typing and texting become the most awkward group in the real world. This is a great loss as at times online messages may convey an inauthentic expression of feelings and most of the time play a key role in diminishing the understanding and thoughtfulness of the conversation. We have become the laziest generation of all the times mankind has encountered. ‘Come let’s discuss on chat’ is often the most used phrase we prefer to convey on phone calls. What are we doing by posting a picture-perfect image and waiting for social approval by the reactions and comments we get? The number of reactions does bother us. Positive ones create a fake image with us being perfect and a single negative one makes us feel like a loser. It is like some big project has got out of hand. The dopamine release which was meant to happen couldn’t owing to that one negative reaction.

The biggest loss for us is the increasing social and emotional distance from our families. The entire family sitting at the dinner table, scrolling through social media, commenting and reacting to each other’s posts and appreciating on social media. Whereas, the ones sitting in front of you in the dining table are completely ignored. The biggest drawback, however, comes with increasing distractions and loss in productive work hours. The tendency to check notifications. and give the first reaction on someone’s post is the biggest goal left for many of us.

What is the end result ? We face a huge impact on our mental health. It’s okay not to feel okay at times but if it is because of social media one should think twice. Sharing of achievements, success perfect image of oneself with perfect body shape, healthy skin and hair, with the best outfit out there and the fanciest place one could ever imagine; all this is just the tip of the iceberg. You don’t need to feel sorry for the life you have. The fake image one portrays on social media with multiples layers of makeup, heavy lights and filters should not affect you anyway round. The reality is the other way round far from the one being portrayed. Starving to be in the best shape, spending heavily on makeup products will just give temporary satisfaction but won’t land you anywhere. All this is done with a high risk of a privacy breach. Sharing and tagging friends in memes have become the real-time cool stuff. With every single beep on the phone, you feel a false sense of pride by seeing yourself prioritized by a person tagging you. You need to give regular proof of your existence by posting on social media otherwise you are declared dead by your social circle because no one cares to ask “how are you, how do you feel.”

The only interesting thing everyone wants to peep into is what you eat, where you went, whom you date and it goes on. The meaning of a relationship is doomed in real life owing to the influence of social media. The best way out is to be focused on your goals and make social media just a small part of life. Waiting for long hours to get the expected number of likes, checking the views constantly and when you don’t receive the desired number, you end up in a depressed state. Even our elders are equally busy in their social media groups and whenever someone in their circle posts an achievement or any happening about their family, you are supposed to follow the same. We have seen posts on mothers day flooding in social media but what happens in most cases is that the child posts on social media before even wishing in person; similarly the reply comes on social media with thank you and emoji by the mother. Already the planning to post the best of images with captions that best suit and filters and frames that will get the maximum likes overpowers our thought process. The ones with the least knowledge are posting their opinion on sensitive topics. Someone gets a cut and posts it on social media; can’t you understand you were supposed to take first aid in place.

Sharing of fake news and manipulated documents with doctored videos can easily befool people and cause riots. This is the growth and advancement social media has given us. We tend to share our moments of happiness with people we don’t know will be happy or envious but still, their judgments matter to us. They shape our thoughts and have a strong influence on our minds. Are we reaching to the masses? Is this what making connections are? Will the ‘gram’ generation ever understand the real meaning of relationships? We were supposed to drive technology but the reverse is happening. Social media has taken over and there’s no looking back once you get into it. It has become a race to increase followers, gather comments and be viral no matter what. What you post and what kind of influence it will have on the viewers hardly comes into our mind. The picture-perfect image being portrayed for people to follow blindly is taking us nowhere. We have already seen baseless trends followed by everyone just to be in limelight regardless of the message it portrays. No matter how risky it can be, everyone wants to be a blind follower for social acceptance and admiration.

So what can be done? To cherish life, all the happy moments you experience – prioritize to live it in person the most and share it only with the people who love and care for you the most. Make every second count with your family and friends and eventually, try making social media just a part of life. Limit its usage for just a specific time of day instead of scrolling all day. Focus and accomplish your goals. It will take you a long way. LOVE your LIFE and make the best of it.