Social Media: A Long-Distance Relationship with the World

Posted on by Larissa Urbiks

Not even 100 years ago, people wrote letters to stay connected across long distances. Today I can write and talk with my boyfriend in Germany in real time. Social media helps us to weather long-distance relationships but also turns everyday life in one. While social media makes it such easy to connect with other people in a virtual world, it tears us apart in reality. You can recognize this every day by observing yourself or others. A group that sits together without talking because they are delved into their smartphones is nothing special anymore. Real face-to-face communication has decreased; we prefer to tag someone at the latest meme. And even if we want to concentrate on our conversation, we zone out after a while asking ourselves how much likes the newest post reached.

But there is also a good thing about social media. Social media is a second reality, where almost everyone in the world is just one click away. I know exactly what people from high school are doing without seeing them for two years. I even know what people are dealing with, I’ve never met once. You can find many communities based on your interests, and that is great because it opens many possibilities to share experiences. It should also allow exchanging views, but this happens rarely. In social media, it’s effortless to avoid opinions that are different than yours. Filter bubbles ensure that you just see those things you’re interested in.

That’s a problem, especially when it comes to dissatisfaction and hate. You only see posts that increase your opinion. The consequence: More and more extreme views, which affects the real world and split our society into different groups, which are not willing to communicate with each other because they are not used to other opinions anymore.

Leave a Reply