In Defence of Social Media

Remember that time you held your dying wife's hand? Or at least tried to, but your smartphone was in the way. To be fair, that's a straw man presentation of the following video, but I couldn't resist. I finally clicked on it after seeing it posted several times on facebook. (Oh, the joy when irony helps to prove your point.) I'd resisted before, because I knew what was coming. Here's the video and my born in the mid 90s and defending social media til I die response. 

Social media is far from flawless. My biggest beef is shallow 'awareness' campaigns quickly passed around and then forgotten. The keeping up with the Joneses effect is intensified with crop and filter filled instagram feeds. Scrolling through twitter can be mindless habit. It's good to take a  break occasionally. Just like it's good to take break from anything. Plus, all of these things would still exist to some extent without social media. What gets to me is the air of superiority. As if without social media we would all be so much purer, willing to make friends with anyone, walking around with a verbal openness and comparing heart covered sleeves. At best we would get more practise with awkward eye contact on the bus. At worst we would be aware of how much we were missing, from photos of a best friend's newborn to quickly arranging plans in facebook groups. One of the reasons social media is so popular is the convenience it brings. Posting a link online reaches a wider audience at a faster pace than individual messaging.

Social media dominates, but it doesn't rule. Undoubtedly, it's ingrained into our routines. Otherwise companies wouldn't be so dedicated to it. But the idea that we forsake everything else, cradling a screen to chase a like, while life thrives around us is false. Children still play on swings and run around in parks. Only a genuinely neglectful parent would constantly abandon their toddler with an iPad. People do inappropriately bring out their phones at dinner tables and social events. However, pretending that the evening has no conversation, just a collective, tapping silence where it doesn't even occur to people to remember their companions' faces is unfair. 

It also completely wipes the genuine communication, connection and safe places formed online by humans fortunate enough to have access to technology. Emotion, often more honest and unfiltered than in "real" life, is shared amongst the mudune in the digital world, too. Maybe he could have met his wife on a dating website. The heartwarming story of an estranged pair finding each other through facebook has already become a trope. Websites like tumblr allow people to share art they've worked on or simply join a freak out over their favourite TV show. Social media amplifies the world right in front of us and presents it to us on a screen. Whether you think we're scarily addicted or not, you should allow it to be both bad and good - it's complex and nuanced, just like the people who use it.