Time to Unplug

Social media became popular since the evolution of mobile technology. Smartphones made it easy for us to get caught up in the virtual world to the point that some forget that real life is happening in front of them and if they don’t take the time to unplug they just might miss those moments. For example, I agreed to meet an old friend at a local restaurant for dinner to catch up with her.  I have known her for a long time, which makes me believe, that she is a social media enthusiast – a person who regularly post status updates and pictures about their life on social media – but while we were in the middle of our conversation, she whipped out her iPhone and started taking snapshots of our food while nodding her head up and down prompting me to keep talking. Pleased by the results, she finally settled on her seat and put her phone on the table winked at me while she cheerfully said, “let’s ask the waiter to take a picture of us and then I will tag you on facebook.” I replied with a question, “I have noticed that you are constantly on your Facebook and Instagram how does it affect your real life?” She replied, “Oh, don’t be silly. I use it to keep my friends and family up to date on what’s going on in my life, totally harmless!” I told her, “No, unfortunately, it has become more than that”.

First, it became a platform for comparison. I don’t want to feel that my life is half empty or that life is unfair because the grass is greener on his or her facebook or Instagram.

Secondly, I don’t want to please other people and constantly seek for approval by caring too much on what to post next because the number of likes we get doesn’t equate to the worth of our life.

Finally, I realized that social media encourages everyone to keep a false image of oneself.  It makes it difficult to be real about ourselves because we always post the best version of ourselves.

Social media in itself is not a bad thing; I think it is a great tool for sharing life moments, but just like many things in this world when you have too much of a good thing it can turn into a not so great thing. That is why I chose to unplug because I want to focus on important things, to have less distraction, and enjoy my life as it is.

Social media is great but I don’t want to get caught up with it because I don’t want to missed out on other things that life has to offer just because I am too involved in an unimportant detail of Facebook, Instagram and snapchat.