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Catie Wagner

Loudermilk

English Composition II

23 June 2019

Social Media

During high school I took a video production class as an elective. While watching

several movies from different decades stretching back to the 1920’s through the 1980’s, I noticed

something very interesting about the way people interacted socially compared to my generation.

I was actually a bit sad as I realized that they seemed to enjoy simple and basic conversations.

My generation tends to jump onto social media to learn about, or get to know people. This was

not true for generations before me. They relied on close interpersonal communication like one

on one live conversations. They were able to enjoy the other persons smile, laugh, and

expressions as well as feel their sorrow or pain at times.

When I am scrolling through social media, I miss those factors because they can’t exist,

yet, I seem to not be able to get enough. My generation seems to prefer the world of social

media over close, personal relationships. Furthermore, we seem to be addicted to it as we are

constantly checking updates, likes, and status changes. I consider myself to be quite a social

person who needs interaction with others and a human connection that seemed to be absent on

my college tours. Smartphones and social media are not completely bad and I do not want to

present than as something we need to avoid or ban, rather I want to seek what causes us to

become addicted and what can be done to manage the addiction or behavior.

I feel we are a generation that has become addicted to social media. It is an unhealthy habit

that many in my generation have adopted. Since smart phone usage was not common until
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recent years, I think we are not fully aware of all it is doing to us regarding our relationships and

communication skills. We have constant access to social media and every second of the day we

can check to see if someone has updated their status or if we have received any likes, and if so,

how many. I believe that there is and will be more information about the effects of social media

and what it is doing to us as a generation. The effects are already showing and I believe the

more we learn, the more we can be aware and change the outcome for ourselves. I already know

that many of my friends, and sometimes I, allow social media accounts to become too important.

We lose perspective due to the pressure of posting the right information, status or acquiring a

certain number of likes.

I am eager to learn what causes us to become so attached or addicted to social

media. Additionally, I would like to research and learn what can be done to change the addiction

or prevent it in the first place.

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