DISCONNECTED!

By Intern: Marcus Stewart 

Lets face it, this generation is completely different from our parents and grandparents generations, times are changing. Times are changing and life is now different and more complex than its ever been before. With the help of social media, it made the entire world connected somehow, and while this can be a great thing it’s also negative in other aspects. In a world where everyone “looks” like their lives are great and lavish all over social media it is imperative you stay true to yourself and don’t lose sight of what your goals and beliefs are. Remember people only share what they WANT you to know, don’t forget there’s a whole portion of their life they don’t “post”. With this being said let’s jump right into it, social media changed the game when it comes to socializing, relationships and even down to the way society thinks. On social media perception is everything and in a place where you can be anything you want to be its important to remember to be yourself and not imitate what you see everyone else doing. When you see people posting pictures of wonderful things and vacations and they’re around your age you start to question yourself and wonder why your life isn’t like theirs. STOP! It is important to never compare your life to someone else’s because that what makes your life special, it’s YOURS you’re not supposed to live through someone else. Keep in mind people may seem happy but you never know what is really going on in their life. Socializing Offline While social media connects people and it’s an effective way to meet new people, it changed the way people actually socialize. People rarely meet face to face anymore and will hardly even know how to socialize and hold a conversation if they can’t type it. People are never offline. My family always tells me I’m on my phone 24/7 and I used to ignore it, but I realized I really am connected and logged on and signed in 24 hours of the day, and I am not the only one. I recently went to dinner with an old friend of mine and it’s like we couldn’t wait to see each other and catch up, but that pretty much didn’t happen. We got to the restaurant and we were on our phones so much in the beginning, we barely talked. But what makes it crazier is that we didn’t even notice until I brought up the idea to put our phones in the middle of the table on “do not disturb”, for the remainder of the dinner. Once this happened we just sat and talked for much longer than we planned to be out eating, but that’s why I appreciated a few hours without my phone glued to my hands. I think it is important to take time out to “log off” even if it’s just out to dinner with friends or family try to not be on your phone and start living in the moment to enjoy the trivial things. RELATIONSHIPS With social media being so popular, it is becoming more likely that you will meet majority of people online instead of the “old-fashioned” way of meeting in person. Social media has also changed the dynamic of dating. In a world where “side pieces” get praised, it’s “cool” to seem heartless, and you have thousands of people at your disposal dating has obviously changed. It is hard to date anyone because a lot of people have this mindset of “play before you get played” which ruins a lot of possibly good relationships. This generation is much different than any time before us because our parents and grandparents did not have social media and thousands of people at their fingertips. So before you look at your grandparents relationship and see they have been together longer than you’ve been alive, just keep in mind times were MUCH different. People also will see couples on Instagram and Twitter who go viral and look nice together and think their relationship is perfect. Meanwhile they probably have fights just like any other relationship and are going through issues that the outside world knows nothing about. So do not compare your life to anyone’s on social media because it’s not reality, it is only what they want you to believe what their reality is. In the future you should be mindful to log out sometimes and accept your reality for what it is. Enjoy the little things in life and be thankful for what you have and not what you don’t. On another note, not everyone is going to play you there really are genuine people in the world, just be smart and always go with your intuition. Until next time…