Social media = various platforms that enable us to communicate with distant family, take fugly photos of ourselves to send to our best friends or make our selfies look effortlessly 'I woke up like this', all with the help of a nice little X-Pro II filter. Something pretty good for socialising then right?
Wrong.
Sure we all love a bit of social media - (I work for a digital social media company goddammit so without it, I'd be pretty screwed, let's be real). However, among the more trivial social media problems (you can read those here) there is a profound issue with the very fact we have become so unbelievably reliant on it, that the most basic human interactions are made more difficult.
Take how reliant we are on Tinder for meeting people for example. Last night was the first time in a long time that I actually had a face to face conversation with a guy that approached me in a bar. Touche to you my friend. The fact I didn't get his number and then proceeded to stalk and try and find him online is completely besides the point (gimme a break, if you say you haven't done it, you're a liar), but essentially, having a nice chin wag with someone over a glass of wine (maybe it was a jagerbomb, past 12am you can never really tell) is always going to beat reading words from a phone screen.
People have become so reliant on social media that in ways, it's actually making us more antisocial. I can count on one hand how many people I actually have regular phone conversations with, and I don't even need all five fingers. Rather than actually talking to one another, we hide behind the filters of our Facebook and Instagram profiles trying to prove to everyone around us that my night out was better than yours, my burger is bigger than yours and the view from my room is more beautiful than yours.
I am completely guilty of all of the above, and I'm definitely not going to stop posting photos or tweets, because essentially, they act as a catalogue of our experiences to look back at with fond nostalgia, especially more so now that the app TimeHop has been created. However, I feel social media is becoming close to an obsession for many people, which in turn, has become detrimental to their abilities to communicate with new people in 'real life'.
When you're out and about with friends, family or the dog, put your phone down and look around you. When you see something inspiring, document it in a photo sure, but use it as a talking point for discussion or as a memory to appreciate in 5 years time. When you meet someone interesting, don't be afraid to continue discussion over a drink, you have nothing to lose.
Stop hiding behind your phone and the mask of social media, bite the bullet, and go and talk to that fitty across the bar. When you get married in five years time you'll probably get a great new profile pic.