The Screen Age - an era in time when no one could be found without the bright light of a smartphone shining up at their face and showing them the words from their latest tweet.
With the help of social media, mass communication and time wasting is at an all-time high.
Many find themselves spending more time searching for memes than they do interacting with other humans or fulfilling their own basic needs.
By distracting from basic human actions, social media is one of the main factors in the dehumanization of much of the population.
“Social media takes away time from more important, basic human things like real social interactions, doing work or homework, taking care of yourself, and spending time with your family,” said Carlmont robotics teacher David Talcott.
However, social media is more than just a way to find funny memes and pass time; it has become essential to many fields of work as well as the classes that prepare students for those types of jobs.
According to Pew Research Center, 90 percent of adults ages 18 to 29 use social networking sites for classes, work, or just for fun.
Many believe that the use of these sites contributes to the success of businesses around the world.
Talcott said, “I think people use social media in their careers because there’s always a component of branding where ever you work. In today’s age, branding is mostly done online so if you want people to know what you’re up to, that’s the easiest and most convenient way to tell everyone.”
Because of the requirement for social media in the workplace, many teens and young adults have had to ditch their ideas of living a distraction-free life and create social media accounts to keep up with job or class requirements.
“The reason why I use Facebook now is because I need to stay updated on school groups, classes, and clubs. I don’t want to miss any events because they were only shared on social media, but I still try to limit my time just scrolling through certain apps,” said Kimberly Lane, a senior.
Although it is difficult, some are able to stick with that media-free lifestyle and find that it has many advantages, including the ability to focus on things that are more important to them.
Lauren Morris, a junior, said, “I don’t use social media mostly because I don’t want to get addicted and use it too much. A lot of people say they will just use it to connect with friends, then they end up spending hours on it for no reason. Without these apps, I have a lot of free time to spend on extracurriculars and stuff that I really care about but I also don’t hear about events with bigger groups because they’re only shared on Facebook.”
Despite missing out on school events, Morris and many others are glad that they avoid constant distractions from sites like Twitter and Facebook.
“It’s clear that the addictive side of social media distracts from basic things,” said Morris. “Some people find themselves mindlessly scrolling through Twitter while they’re brushing their teeth or doing other simple tasks and they probably don’t concentrate on either action enough for it to be effective.”
However, due to the ongoing technological advancements of modern times, many believe that the dream of fully maintaining one’s humanity and living a life without social media is just that, a dream.
“You would have to be living a fake reality to pretend like social media isn’t going to be real in the future. It is definitely here to stay,” said Talcott. “It’s possible to avoid it along with all of its distractions and that may be a good way to focus on what makes us human, but you should still be familiar with it to be able to take the good things from it. The blanket ‘I don’t want to use it’ isn’t good enough.”
The Highlander, March 2017
With the help of social media, mass communication and time wasting is at an all-time high.
Many find themselves spending more time searching for memes than they do interacting with other humans or fulfilling their own basic needs.
By distracting from basic human actions, social media is one of the main factors in the dehumanization of much of the population.
“Social media takes away time from more important, basic human things like real social interactions, doing work or homework, taking care of yourself, and spending time with your family,” said Carlmont robotics teacher David Talcott.
However, social media is more than just a way to find funny memes and pass time; it has become essential to many fields of work as well as the classes that prepare students for those types of jobs.
According to Pew Research Center, 90 percent of adults ages 18 to 29 use social networking sites for classes, work, or just for fun.
Many believe that the use of these sites contributes to the success of businesses around the world.
Talcott said, “I think people use social media in their careers because there’s always a component of branding where ever you work. In today’s age, branding is mostly done online so if you want people to know what you’re up to, that’s the easiest and most convenient way to tell everyone.”
Because of the requirement for social media in the workplace, many teens and young adults have had to ditch their ideas of living a distraction-free life and create social media accounts to keep up with job or class requirements.
“The reason why I use Facebook now is because I need to stay updated on school groups, classes, and clubs. I don’t want to miss any events because they were only shared on social media, but I still try to limit my time just scrolling through certain apps,” said Kimberly Lane, a senior.
Although it is difficult, some are able to stick with that media-free lifestyle and find that it has many advantages, including the ability to focus on things that are more important to them.
Lauren Morris, a junior, said, “I don’t use social media mostly because I don’t want to get addicted and use it too much. A lot of people say they will just use it to connect with friends, then they end up spending hours on it for no reason. Without these apps, I have a lot of free time to spend on extracurriculars and stuff that I really care about but I also don’t hear about events with bigger groups because they’re only shared on Facebook.”
Despite missing out on school events, Morris and many others are glad that they avoid constant distractions from sites like Twitter and Facebook.
“It’s clear that the addictive side of social media distracts from basic things,” said Morris. “Some people find themselves mindlessly scrolling through Twitter while they’re brushing their teeth or doing other simple tasks and they probably don’t concentrate on either action enough for it to be effective.”
However, due to the ongoing technological advancements of modern times, many believe that the dream of fully maintaining one’s humanity and living a life without social media is just that, a dream.
“You would have to be living a fake reality to pretend like social media isn’t going to be real in the future. It is definitely here to stay,” said Talcott. “It’s possible to avoid it along with all of its distractions and that may be a good way to focus on what makes us human, but you should still be familiar with it to be able to take the good things from it. The blanket ‘I don’t want to use it’ isn’t good enough.”
The Highlander, March 2017