Social Media Takeover
As I was scrolling through Facebook last-night, a typical procrastination strategy that usually results in nothing but an hour or so going to waste, I came across an unusually interesting post from one of my high school friends. It was a link to his first article, titled “Why I Write Letters,” for Odyssey, a “social content platform that discovers and shares a chorus of millennial voices, amplified organically through social media.” I gave it a quick read, it was only about 500 words, and immediately realized how much it related to both my current english class and life outside of school.
I immediately connected with his article before I even began reading it. For every birthday, Christmas, or Easter present I have ever gotten, my parents have always made me write a personal thank you letter by hand. It’s always been a pain for me to do, however, it’s the type of thing that ends up being worth it. People are really happy when they receive hand written letters and for the most part, they’re really easy to write anyway. However, the vast majority of kids my age don’t write cards for any occasions, instead resorting to email or even more likely, a text, Snapchat or Instagram post.
His article discusses the issues that our generation is encountering with respect to our dependance on technology and how it impacts our daily lives. He describes his perception of our generation’s need to always be on our phones and our lack of ability to hold a conversation for more than five minutes. He goes on to ultimately share his concerns for the future,
“I fear for our diminishing sense of compassion. It is worrisome that social gatherings seldom involve social activity; it is worrisome that documenting an event for the purpose of posting it on social media outlets has become more important than experiencing said event.”
What’s ironic to me is that his message, which I agree with on the majority of levels, is being shared on a website that takes pride in its ability to reach a young audience through social media. My friend is using technology and our generation’s constant need to check social media, to reach his audience. This is the way in which I hope, and believe he hopes, technology can be used in the future to connect people from across the globe and share our ideas.