Social media and its anti-social impacts

Social media and its anti-social impacts

The negative impacts of social media on our society
We see families out on dinners with their head drowned in their phones, we see couples clearly “together” but busy staring at their phones screens, what does it tell you? It says that there is a person or thing on the other side of the screen that is way more important to you than the person sitting next to you.

It seems like the more we talk about the technology dividing us, the more we demand from it. Check-ins on Facebook about your dinner and lunch with the picture of Food with perfect angle is somehow become social responsibility of our generation. Also, it poses a huge risk to our society today. We have shortened the vocabulary. LOL, OMG,TBH,WTF, JBH.

This how social media is controlling our lives.
When we abbreviate the vocabulary, we lessen the ways, words and sentences to express ourselves and communicate fully. Losing our vocabulary equals the potential loss of losing the ability to communicate within ourselves.

It is common perception that all this extraordinary use of social media and cellular phones is done by the teenagers or enthusiast youngsters. No, it’s not just them;it’s us, the Adults. We are constantly connected to our phones and constantly distracted from the outer world or the people around us.

We are always at work, communicating, E-mailing. Our kids see this, observe this and so they are always on their devices.

Busy in social media and ignoring the social life
We often heard from our colleagues, acquaintances or friends or over hear it from somewhere else, “What do you mean, you don’t know? I posted it on Facebook”.

And what do we do?What do want to show when we are on Facebook. We present an ideal life, perfect parenting, and glorified relationships. We hardly ever give a bad news or post a critique about our life because that doesn’t give away lots of “Likes”. Because, sadly, in today’s world number of likes are equaling with our self-esteem.

Then there comes, “Selfies”. It is a kind of sad invention, taking our picture by ourselves. Although social media can be harnessed as an incredible tool, we must realize that it acts as a horrible replacement for true personal interaction.

The abusive use of Selfies.
When we become intertwined with technology or things like social media, we become hypnotized and fall into a techno trance where things like common sense, manners and awareness often get pushed aside. We end up doing things without considering the repercussions, and behaving in ways that disregard the world around us.

Being a Muslim and from a country that has very strong set of social norms and standards for social mobility, it doubles the job for us. We need to look out for people around us. We need to look out for our parents which is not just social but a religious duty for us.
Read More : Pakistani Women's obsession with brands
Most of us were raised with a particular sense of manners, kindness, empathy, and respect for others. We were taught to be present in the moment out of courtesy to those we are with (it is called paying attention).

Being present has become a notable problem as social media and new technology have evolved.Somehow many of us have allowed this rush of new technology to push aside the present moment, along with many of the manners we were taught at an early age.

Coming out of our “Virtual social circle” would not only help our mental and social condition but also provide us with plenty of time that can be used constructively with some physical movement.