We live in a world that has people more vulnerable to technology than to their past relationships. Social media is one of the biggest impacts that has happened for not only this generation, but all ages included. This has become detrimental towards people’s communication by reducing socialization and how it has become an addiction for individuals. Social Media is the Sun, and We Are the Planets.
Individuals may have anxiety or have trouble with communication skills. Social media gives these people certain apps to use to be able to not have to be face-to-face with someone but still have that social interaction with a human being. In the reading “The Comfort of a Digital Confidante” explains how using Alexa can make someone feel less lonely.
How someone can program an app into Alexa where you speak out loud their thoughts and with a password, he or she can keep something like a journal. Alang informs how he enabled Alexa to listen to his thoughts. He talks in about how it was comforting that, instead of going to meet a friend and talk to them about what was on his mind, he can instead simply talk to Alexa. For example, “If I wanted to take my relationship with Alexa to the next level, sharing deeply-held thoughts rather than just thanks, I had options.
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Secret Keeper, an app for Alexa, lets you whisper a private thought to Alexa, and protect it with a password. Your secret will either be locked away forever, or it can be heard anonymously by others.” (Alang, 413,414). This is how a people start to lose human interaction. People are picking a virtual female assistant or random people who are using the same app to talk to rather than talking to an actual human being. It does not always have to be with Alexa either. Simply only wanting to text or Facetime, also does the same job. There are individuals who would rather stay in and be on their phone most of their day than go out and hang with friends and or visit family.
Addiction does not have to be due to some sort of substance; it can be towards your phone as well. Inventors of these apps of social media make them be addictive so that you cannot resist them. In the “Can’t Quit the Clicks: The Rise of Social Media Rehab” it talks about how much social media steals our attention per day and how we might have a real problem with how attached we are to social media “…Eighty Percent of users check their phones within fifteen minutes of waking up, according to a 2013 study sponsored by Facebook.
The same study also found that the average user checks their mobile device every six minutes.” (Wiskin, 417). The fact that people have a need to check their phones in a certain amount of time already says how it is an unhealthy habit. The reason people get addicted is that individuals who deal with different disorders from anxiety or depression get too wrapped into the idea where they can hide behind a screen to be able to still get validation when needed or to express themselves in a painless way.
Social media robs people of their individuality, it has them lose human interaction. Addiction can have you hypnotized with the idea that nothing else matters but these apps. That’s why social media is the sun, and we are the planets because we revolve around social media.
