Yes – social media is making us less social:
- By following friends on social media and not communicating with them privately, we can only know the things they post on their accounts. We may not know much about what is really happening in their lives. That means we will have no meaningful connections with friends.
- The convenience of contacting people online made us prefer it over meeting them outside.
- A few people now have social anxiety due to not having enough face to face interactions. When we avoid talking to people for a long time, automatically we develop a fear to involve in small talk.
- Trolling in social media is a big menace. It is affecting the self-esteem of many people and is also making them avoid forming social connections.
- In the present time, several people are addicted to smartphones and especially social media. This leaves them with no time to interact with people in real life. Even when they are speaking with people face to face, they are getting distracted by their phones and are not concentrating on the conversation.
- These days, when youngsters meet or go out together, most probably they are either taking pictures or recording videos. This is affecting their ability to maintain social connections.
- In the book “iGen”, it was mentioned that in the next decade we may see more young people who know just the right emoji for a situation—but not the right facial expression. This can become true if we prefer virtual life over real life.
No – social media is not making us less social:
- Due to social media, now we have the opportunity to connect with many people, even if they do not live in our area. Before social media, we could interact with people from either our locality or the places we go.
- During the covid pandemic time, social media helped people in maintaining their social life.
- Social media made it possible to stay connected with friends and loved ones all the time. We can easily know what is happening in their lives. It allowed us to communicate with multiple people at the same time by sharing posts.
- Through close-knit communities or micro-communities based on shared interests on social media along with private messaging, social media gave us an opportunity to build real connections with people we can really relate to.
Conclusion:
It completely depends on how we use social media. If we use it properly, we can join close-knit communities people based on shared interests. There is a need to guide adolescents about the effect of social media on our social lives. If we think we are getting addicted to social media and are preferring it over real-life interactions, we can go for a digital detox to learn to use social media properly.
Your Turn…
Do you think social media is making us less social? Tell us your thoughts on this topic through the comment section below. And subscribe to our blog to read answers to the trending GD topics.
Photo by Marcus Aurelius from Pexels
References:
Copyright @ Group Discussion Ideas.
