6 years ago
6
Social media was supposed to 'bring the world closer together.' Instead it's making us pettier
A few weeks ago I was at a restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the annoyingly pretentious kind that's given an ironic Hebrew name because its menu mainly consists of pork and shellfish dishes. Usually I Instagram Story my experience — after all, how can one enjoy their meal unless everyone else they know can see what they are eating? — but on this occasion I put away my phone. It wasn't because I was enjoying the company of close friends as we shared multiple small plates portioned for a toddler. Nor was it because I wanted to disconnect from technology.
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I expected a recent study about the evils of social media. Instead, I got a few anecdotes from a cog in the machine trying to rock the ship as best he can.
Yeah, it's certainly an interesting article but it's not a carefully-researched analytical study, it's more of just an opinion-style piece. It makes some good points though. It begs the question: why does the author not just quit Instagram and Facebook if it's causing her so much annoyance? This was not addressed in the article.
Probably because one small instance of not taking a picture of her food is not worth deleting entire accounts over. We should not make the assumption that she is fed up with social media and/or her life is suffering because of it based off of 1 personal anecdote, regardless of our personal feelings towards it.
Shes not wrong. Social media the way it is today has reshaped our minds and created new social norms and standards. The only way to avoid being a victim is to seriously limit what you share and be extremely vigilant with your accounts. But yeah, petty... that's a good word for it, it all adds up in the end.
I think she is wrong. People have always been petty, social media just shined a light on it.
Sure, I guess that's another way to look at it. Either way, promoting this type of behaviour and enabling this sort of voyeurism is not exactly what people wanted when they heard of the promise of bringing the world closer.