“I tweet therefore I am” solely focuses on how social mediahas shaped our generation into people who constantly need to tweet or post.Peggy Orenstein writes about how social media has prompted a trend of “self-promotionover self-awareness.” Her aforementioned statement declares people are moreworried about what their profile status says rather than living in the momentand enjoying what they are doing. I believe the incessant utilization of socialmedia presents limitations that effectively outweigh the benefits it offers forsocietal improvement and personal development.
Over 91% of 16-24 year olds use theinternet for social networking. A majorityof this population believe that social messaging is more of a benefit than aconsequence, but using social media can lead issues involving addiction.For example, people have become so attached to their phones that they havestarted to use them everywhere which can remove their attention and forethoughtfor life outside of social media. There are too many students at home are trying to work on schoolassignments, but are distracted by their desire to continuously scrutinize atext message. Ultimately, this addiction causes a halt in development of theirlearning as they prioritize their image on the screen over life disregardingpopular technology. Secondly, themore people use social media, the less happiness they have. There’ll berelentless distress about how other people may react to what you say and whatthey may be thinking. Suddenly, your personal discretion becomes up for publicdebate.
This causes unnecessary stress on the body and can potentially lead tothe slow collapse of one’s mental health. Orenstein states she does not conveythe truth when she tweets. Instead she tweets what she believes people want tohear. This only further proves the conviction that social media functions onfalsified and carefully controlled appearances. Social mediahas become an easy and accessible way to communicate with others.
Lots of peoplebelieve more voices can be heard and important topics can be discussed withinlarger audiences. Although this is important, face-to-face communication willbecome a thing of the past, diminishing the concept of building real-liferelationships. It’s difficult to distinguish between bonds formed over theInternet and meaningful connections we create in the real world. We dedicate alarge portion of our time toward the relationships created online, that we takeaway from strengthening the significant ones in our daily lives. Despite beinginches away from someone physically, mentally their mind will be in anotherworld, interacting with people thousands of miles away, and the prospect ofcommunication will be gone. The true connection you share in seeing theirphysical attributes, hearing their voice, understanding their emotionsgenuinely fade. One hundred-forty characters, misspelled words, and childish abbreviations have led oursociety to cease any meaningful endeavors.
I believe that although social mediahas its benefits it needs to be copiously managed. Similar to the fantasy ofsugar, a moderated amount is tolerable but too much can trigger a serioussickness.
