Heather Ward

Diana Watkins
Comp 1
13 April 2019

The Social, but Socially Ignorant, Generation

I am a Millennial, which makes it interesting to me to study how technology and social media has

evolved from my generation to the next. Technology is quickly advancing, which is allowing us to now

have instant access to information. Social media and technology are changing how we interact with each

other in some good and bad ways. I no longer have to flip through the white pages to find a phone number

for a friend: I can now simply open social media for an instant update of their lives. No longer is distance

a factor when it comes to staying connected with friends and family. My children have the opportunity to

post videos of themselves while playing video games with their friends for instant interaction with each

other. There is now a whole generation that knows nothing but a world where we hang out with friends

just to stare at our phones. We jump on social media to announce major events in our lives. We no longer

send birthday cards, we simply post Happy Birthday on Facebook. I cannot open social media without

seeing trolls or something else negative. Social media and technology is here to stay, so we have to learn

to use it in a healthy way.

Social media is an interesting place where you can view snapshots of people’s life’s, find out

their religious beliefs, political views and so much more. I spend my time like everyone else scrolling

through our feeds just people watching. I can see my best friend is bored today because she has already

posted 10 memes and its only lunch time. I make sure to like them or put the laughy face emoji, so she

knows I have seen them and thought they were funny too. As I continue to scroll down my feed, I notice

another friend engaging in an argument with someone over some new drama. I keep scrolling because I

do not need to be part of the drama even if I agree. I see my boss is watching Grey’s Anatomy and I heart
it because I watch it too. I switch to another social media account and see I have a couple of new

followers. I am going to follow them back because that is the proper etiquette on social media. I really

don’t fully understand this world but here I am engaging in this new form of social interaction.

I remember my first experience with the early stages of social media when it was all about the

chat rooms. AOL and yahoo were the first two I really remember using. I remember being so young and

not really knowing what I was doing on them, but it was cool because I could talk to people all over the

world. Years later, when I was a freshman in high school, my friends and I hung out in an anime chat

room. We all picked an anime characters that represented us; mine was some cat/ human crossbreed. I

was a little dorky now that I think about it. Aww, the fun times we had in that chat room. A few more

years passed and here comes myspace; this was a game changer. I now had this online site that I could

really express myself. I could customize my page to play my favorite songs when you entered. I would

spend hours finding that perfect background. I customized to really tell a story of who I am. I miss having

the chance to customize my page like I did on myspace. I do not understand why we walked away from

Myspace. We quickly forgot about Myspace when Facebook came along.

Facebook and Instagram are two power houses when it comes to social media. I am not going to

talk about Twitter because I still do not understand it and I just do not care enough to even try tweeting;

it’s one of those fads that I still do not get. I do regularly use hashtags though which I believe began on

Twitter. I was 21 or older when I first setup my Facebook account. I was still using chat rooms and

Myspace but my grandmother wanted me to set up an account on Facebook for my mom and I so that we

could be connected with all our family on the west coast. Facebook has really grown since I first joined

and now its socially odd to not have an account. According to Zephoria Inc. Facebook,” Worldwide, there

are over 2.32 billion monthly active users (MAU) as of December 31, 2018”, “1.52 billion people on

average log onto Facebook daily” and “there are 83 million fake profiles” (Zephoria) [#catfish, #trolls].

When we see these numbers it is pretty clear why trolls are all over Facebook and other social media

sites. Julie Zhuo writes in her essay “Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt”, “Psychological research has
proven again and again that anonymity increases unethical behavior…And in the online world, which can

offer total anonymity, the effect is even more pronounced. People- even ordinary, good people- often

change their behavior in radical ways. There’s even a term for it: the online disinhibition effect”. These

sites are not all bad they are great for business owners because you can pay for targeted ads. This allows

you to reach a wider audience then you would organically. Instagram took me several years before I could

really get into it. When I became a hairstylist, I began using it frequently and learning how to make it

work for me. Instagram is a great tool to get your work out there so clients and big companies can see

your work. Once you have enough followers, companies will actually pay you for promoting their

products. Instagram and YouTube are two leading examples of this, as significant money can be made

with sufficient time and effort. It is crazy how many people became famous from sites like these.

Now let’s talk about YouTube, Vine, and Snapchat. My 2 oldest boys both want to be famous

YouTubers. There really is not a kid over two now that does not know what YouTube is. My four year

old daughter calls it meTube because she thinks when we say you that means it is hers. I’m still sad Vine

is no longer a thing but thankfully you can still find old Vines videos on YouTube; seriously YouTube

rocks. YouTube is a great place to find how to videos and even educational video. It can be very addictive

and does have some questionable content that they try to weed out, but I hope it never goes extinct like

Myspace. Enough about YouTube and now let us talk about Snapchat that gets such a bad raputation for

all its promiscuous users that make it seem like that’s all it is good for. Snapchat is a fun way to connect

with friends. Snapchat has the best filters out there; other apps have tried to copy but Snapchat out does

them. My kids and I have so much fun playing with Snapchat filters. Snapchat does attract unwelcomed

attention and can lead you unwanted photos and videos if you just add anyone to your Snapchat. Online

people should always use caution because not everyone is a good person or have the right intentions.

Social media has made it super easy to connect with people all around the world or even just to

reconnect people with old friends. Sherry Turkle points out in her TED talk titled “Connected but Alone”.

How technology is causing us to be less connected. (Turkle) People have less real meaningful
conversations with those around them and spend all of their time staring at our phones. In the beginning

we were able to unplug and return to the real world. We have somehow lost the ability to unplug. I like

how Turkle points out how people now text and check emails during board meetings and during class.

Then she points out how families do it too, “Parents are texting and sending emails during breakfast or

dinner as their kids complain that their parents aren’t paying attention to them, but then these same

children deny each other their full attention” (Turkle).

It has also made it easy for people to share their every thought and options on any topic you can

think of. Sometimes being this connected to others through technology can be a very bad thing. I cannot

scroll through Facebook without seeing someone engaging in some type of drama. Everyone feels that

they are entitled to their option and that anyone who disagrees with them is wrong. Then you have the

people who cannot help but comment on someone’s post just because they disagree and think that they

can change this person’s mind with their option. Social Media is also where you find trolls, lurking and

waiting for any opportunity to attack. I love how Julie Zhuo defines, “Trolling as the act of posting

inflammatory, derogatory or provocative massages in public forums, is a problem as old as the internet

itself, although its roots go much farther back.…”. She goes on to also on to talk about how in the “Forth

Century, Plato touched upon the subject of anonymity and morality in hi parable of the ring of Gyges”.

(Zhuo) I hope that in the future we can be better at holding people personally responsible for their

behavior. Trolling is bullying, and the bullying needs to stop. I think we are on the right path to putting a

stop to trolls, but we are still have a long way to go.

Social media and technology are rapidly growing. We are starting to realize there are some social

issues that we must deal with as it continues to expand. I am hoping that us millennials can start to deal

with the issues now so that we can better prepare Gen Z and other generations after them to find balance

between technology and real life. We must educate kids on the proper ways to use social media and hold

people socially responsible for what they do online. I do not want to see social media cause us to be

completely self-absorbed and lose touch with what is real. We need to put down the phones and be
present in our lives. Watch the concert instead of trying to stream it live for others to see. I want to see

everyone really interacting with each other. Its an addiction so let’s start treating it like we do for any

other addiction. Let’s grow with technology and only use it to become better citizens.