Written by: Binayak Kumar Mahato - 22025, Grade XII
Posted on: 11 February, 2022
In indirect and less obvious ways, social networking sites are making us antisocial. Yes, it has allowed us to reach out to a bigger group of individuals and revolutionized how we engage with one another. It gave us insight into how various people thought. So here's my question to everyone: Are we becoming less social as a result of social media? We've all heard the social media horror stories. Problems such as cyberbullying and sex scandals have clung to the idea of various social media channels, negatively skewing its picture. However, there are other advantages to using social media that we frequently overlook. As a result of social media, we become more social. Because it allows us to connect with people we know and people we don't know, as well as create positive changes with just a few taps on a screen, the advantages of social media outweigh the disadvantages. People nowadays have a large number of friends, with friend lists numbering in the hundreds. Are they, however, truly our friends? More than half of the 'friends' on our list are people we've never spoken to, and a small percentage are people we've never even seen! A friend is someone who is tied to another living creature by feelings of affection or personal esteem, according to the dictionary.
Even if it isn't on our list of friends, our pet is one of us. I agree that these sites allow us to communicate with our loved ones, but "people have forgotten the concept of loved ones nowadays and have started to believe that 'social media' is their home." People nowadays prefer to chat rather than engage in real conversation with one another. My parents and sister frequently complain that I don't give them enough time. I spend almost all of my time on Facebook or Instagram, even when no one is available to talk to, I'm always waiting for people, but I'm never aware that there are people waiting for me outside of the social media world. Perhaps I've lost a few wonderful friends in order to gain a few new ones just in the virtual world. Maybe all of this social networking has turned me into a loner or introvert.
We are so entangled with social media that we have developed a psychological dependency on it as a result of our obsessive fear of missing out on a social connection opportunity. We are always worried about missing out, and if we do, we make up excuses to go back, which makes us anxious and sad. This is quite dangerous, because network companies are constantly devising new techniques to keep you glued to their sites, and we are becoming addicted
