Social Networks

One strange phenomenon centered around the generation of millennials is the plethora of social media websites. Social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can serve many different purposes for many different people based on wants, likes, and needs. Personally, I used to be pretty into social media, particularly with the three aforementioned sites. However, I have since used the flood of emotional, election related posts to abandon social media in a personal social experiment. In the days following the election, I have completely restricted myself from Instagram, Twitter, and Yik yak, and have allowed only the sending of snapchats to friends, as well as very limited facebook use. At first, it was really tough to find other ways to spend my time. It was like my body had developed a certain muscle memory that kicked in whenever I was bored, and my fingers would pull my phone from my pocket, click the home button, open the phone and proceed to go straight to the previously mentioned apps. I had to catch myself a bunch of times and close the apps just to ensure I was able to stay on track. I treated it like an addiction, and although it wasn't necessarily ruining my life or tearing my family apart, it was definitely something I felt I could better myself with by eliminating it from my daily routine. To eliminate the muscle memory problem, I downloaded several news apps (BBC, CNN, ProPublica, Fox news, etc.) and replaced them in the spot where the folder with my social media apps were. In hindsight, this was not the best way to avoid talk about the election, but at least the breadth of resources allowed me to find my own opinion instead of going off of hearsay. For the purposes of this post, I made a brief return to facebook, and thankfully the political theses and 5 page essays of assumed political knowledge had subsided a bit. The vernacular of the internet is a strange concept, couple that with human behavior and desire to be heard in order to have a voice in a crowd and I'm not sure what to make of it. Of course, everybody lives their lives differently and with different motives. Psychology, however, tells us that the average human mind endures a lifelong struggle with self-efficacy and the climb to the top of a mental hierarchy that takes us through our lives in a mere instant in the spectrum of the universe, while somehow seeming like an eternity to us. Some people use social media as an outlet to be heard, and others use it for pure enjoyment. Many people think they can help the world by spreading their opinion on what is right and what is wrong, but that is simply not the case. Everyone is different. The search for validation in our opinions is what perpetuates the machine that is social media. To be honest, since giving up on social media, I cannot say with 100% certainty that I have been happier. The internet can be a very funny place, and sites like Twitter and Facebook make it easy to keep up with current events. Everything must occur in moderation. Social media is like a diet. If you enjoy things in proper proportions, your mind and your life will be fit, but if you over indulge, everything will turn to mush.