Throwback Society

Welcome back to throwback society; today, we talk about the loss of social media and the effect on people's ability to interact with one another in a non-formal setting, we're also talking about where social media is going and how we can bring it back. We are starting with social media because that was one of the hardest things people had to give up; most people's routines consisted of getting up and scrolling Instagram or Facebook. The convenience of having all this information right at your fingertips was something people utilized, although not always for the right reasons, with some of those reasons being on the selfish side. I can honestly say that I was one of those people who used it as a way to keep track of what my ex was doing; I liked knowing what they were up to and commenting on a picture or two. The only good thing about no social media was not having ads shoved down our throats or thinking that our searches were being used as a way to trick us into buying a bunch of stuff we would regret buying later.

Let’s start with the lack of social media affecting people's communication skills and forcing them to seek interaction with people face to face because they didn’t have the buffer of a computer screen or cell phone to allow them to hide their face. Once there was no longer direct messaging or chatting people had to go back to actually using their mouths to speak to people and get to know them, they could not just look up their socials to find out about this person. It was a blessing and a curse because, on one hand, it made it harder for people to hide who they were but on the other hand it made it harder to find out if people were being truthful. You had to get to know people on a more personal level to find out about them and it forced people to always be on alert when talking to someone because they didn’t know who they were really talking to. I liked that it forced people out of their comfort zone and made you have to go out to meet people, I am a very social person so I like to be where the people are and make new friends daily.

I next want to talk about how lack of social media was the downfall of a lot of family and friend relationships because trying to keep in touch with people halfway across the country was not an easy thing when your only form of communication is a letter or phone call. Lots of people just stopped talking because they had no way to reach out to each other, sadly most people are not going to take the time to write a letter whether it be a lack of time or just forgetfulness. There have been family members that I lost touch with because things got hectic and I had no way to reach out that would not take a while to get to them; I feel bad about not reaching out. The past was a great teacher of how communication was done and showed some people that simply talking to someone face to face was in ways better than talking to them online. The ones with social anxiety would have to face their fears and just go for it because they would have no other choice, the ones without it would be just fine but it took some time to figure it all out.

Lastly, I want to talk about where I think the idea of social media is going to go now that it is no longer here for people to use because for all we know it may never come back and we have to find a new outlet for people's creativity and thoughts. Without the avenues that social media provided people were forced to keep a lot of their thoughts and opinions to themselves and these were both good and bad things; people need a way to express themselves. I would hope that people see the greatness in just getting together to have discussions with like-minded individuals as not only a way to express their opinions but also as a way to meet new people and makes friends. The future of the world is unclear but as far as social media is concerned there are so many new avenues that can be taken when you get offline and get out into the real world and just exist.

This concludes another chapter in the saga that is throwback society; I hope that you enjoyed what I had to say and I also hope that you come back for the next chapter because in that one I will be talking about dating apps and the effect no internet has had on them. I want to leave you with this, using social media can be a great thing but can also cause us to become lazy when it comes to social interaction in a face-to-face setting. Be careful that you don’t rely on it too much that you have trouble going without it, remember that just because something is easy doesn’t mean that it is the best choice of action for every situation or occasion. Once again thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope that you come back for the next chapter in this story.