Every morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is check my social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat.

I scroll through Facebook to read statuses of acquaintances near and far, double-tap pictures of people’s breakfast foods on Instagram, quickly absorb what’s happening in the world on Twitter, and watch a number of people walk to class with the same geofilter attached on Snapchat. Before 9 a.m., I already feel like I’ve connected with the world.

It’s paradoxical, in a sense: to feel as if we’re more connected to one another just because we see certain events transpire from a digital distance. Out of the hundreds of people that are my social media friends and followers, I have genuine relationships with a handful of them. And yet, modern social media makes it seem as if I’m constantly creating and building upon relationships with the use of text, images, and videos.

This modern concept of being reachable all the time, ensures you are not present anywhere. (The irony of posting this on social media)

— Lisa Ray (@Lisaraniray) January 27, 2016

We’re constantly surrounded by modern social media, and our digital devices can interrupt face-to-face interactions. There’s always some newsfeed to be refreshed, and new content to see or read. This feeds well into what media scholar Ethan Zuckerman pens in his book, “Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection“.

Media expert @EthanZ says it's not about what information we have access to nowadays, it's about what information we want to absorb. #NHsmc

— Jane Hong (@janehong_) February 1, 2016

With so much information out there, how can we possibly pay attention to it all? Similar to information, modern social media makes it impossible to be connected to every single person in our networks–despite our efforts to keep up.