Let’s get off social media — we might find something we’ve been missing

Retweet. Comment. Like. The world has certainly changed over the last 10 years, with social media playing a massive role in the transformation. Social network giants have taken over people’s computers, phones, tablets, and lives. 

 

For all the good that technology can impart through the ability to communicate with friends and family, and the quick dissemination of news (hopefully not “fake”), it is imperative that we also acknowledge the deleterious effects that social media can have on both our youth and adults.

 

Children are spending significant amounts of time on social networking sites, and it has the potential to negatively impact emotional intelligence—essentially, one’s ability to identify and comprehend emotions in oneself and other people, and drawing upon this awareness to direct behavior and manage personal relationships. 

 

{mosads}The decline of face-to-face interaction can stifle emotional development and growth in a way that has never been witnessed. Social skills have been reduced to “liking” someone’s “meme” or commenting on a photograph. Where are the deeper conversations and engagement that can only truly be fostered through real-life communication?

 

 

The Grand Café in Oxford, UK is the oldest coffee house in England, with an establishment date of circa 1650. The coffee shop novelty had a profound influence on the citizens of Oxford, as the coffee stimulant and social environment provided a way to share bright ideas and original thoughts that would go on to inspire genius inventions.

 

When you walk into the same coffee shop today, it is common to see young 20-year-old classmates looking down at their phones, swiping right on a dating application or double-tapping a friend’s post. Sure, it may be fun and help to pass the time, but what about looking up at your peers and engaging with them on an issue just discussed in class? Or perhaps asking your friend how they are coping with a recent family member’s passing and how you can help?

 

Emotional intelligence is threatened by the rise of social media, but so is general intellect. Again, there can certainly be benefits to having quick access to the most up-to-date news stories, possibly consuming new information, and interacting with diverse populations beyond what one may be experiencing in his or her physical environment.

 

Some researchers have actually suggested that social media can improve verbal and critical thinking skills. But it can be argued that spending hours upon hours each day swiping up and down on a social network feed is leading to a less-informed and less cultured society. Instead of picking up a newspaper to read entire articles (rather than a 140-character quip) or beginning a classic novel that could prove to be great discussion material during a college or job interview, our youth have been exposed to the glamour and excitement of pictures and one-line witticisms. Obsession over distant celebrities and the daily ventures of “friends” (who you often know only on a superficial level) has become all too frequent.

 

Social media will not die, at least not while we are around. And I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, suggesting that it will or should falter. 

 

But what we can do is take it upon ourselves to encourage those around us to live in the moment. Engage with your children, colleagues, mentors, and strangers. Look them in the eye. Challenge them to escape from behind the touchscreen of a mobile device. We might just find something that we have been missing.

 

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The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.