Social Media: A Public Diary
Social media has turned into the public diary of our time. We say it helps us communicate and release our emotions, but is it really helping us? As Bob Dylan sang, the times they are a-changing. Could social media be molding us into cowards?
Staring at our vacant computer screens, we start to tweet about our horrible day at work. We want someone to hear and understand us. But with friends close to us, why do we default to Facebook or Twitter instead of a physical shoulder to cry on? It may be easier to express our feelings online because there is a certain anonymity to it—when it is actually the exact opposite. We wonder what it does to our sanity. Do people read our comments and care? Behind the screen, audiences read our emotional vents (which may be about completely random things like your 50 posts about how much you love your dog or how you went driving to the store and got flipped off by a raged driver) via Facebook; we may empathize with you, laugh at you, or even worse—unfriend you. So we ask ourselves again, do our public diaries help us communicate with others?
With social media profiles, we are all celebrities. People judge us by our pages, pictures, comments, or how we construe ourselves digitally (which may very well be a completely different person than who we actually are). And we judge them. It’s an inevitable cycle that we love to hate. We all take part in the growth of technology. And anyone who doesn’t will be left behind.
Thoughts??
- Bri
