Our generation is obsessed with ourselves. We are actors, entertainers and comedians, all for a press of a button. The search for acceptance is crucial, but for what? Is it so everybody can tell us how attractive we look in filtered pictures. So we can rank ourselves based on a visual statistic that dictates we are better if it turns out to be higher than someone else’s.
It is clear we all want to be famed for something and feel that our presence has meaning to others, but when did we lose intellectual depth to society? When did we become so narcissistic?
I am not better than anyone else as I have contributed to the superficial nature of social media plenty of times, but I would be remiss, if I did not reflect upon our generation in an honest manner. As young adults we strive for individualism, yet the basis of our lives are revolved around the opinions of others.
Our minds are constantly thinking of witty comments, likable pictures and provocative materials because we believe gaining this acceptance will somehow make us more recognizable. People feel a sense of connection when a tweet or a post is “liked”.
We have become so addicted to this connection that people need it all the time, constantly checking their phones. This desire for instant gratification takes away from personal interactions. People rarely strike up conversations with unfamiliar faces because they are not able to use actual social skills. For some, it appears strange to have these personal interactions at all.
In this regard, our love for the Internet has made us more skeptical. Newspapers no longer pay attention to actual news articles but rather, cheap, useless 140 character tweets that hold little intellectual value. Blog sites are misconstrued to be honest news sources. In reality, it is some middle-aged man ripping off BuzzFeed articles and spewing conspiracy theories.
This is not to further some liberal agenda but to make people think about how we live our lives through the Internet. We want to have these safe spaces within the confines of social media, but why should it matter how people view what you do?
If you love something, do it because it makes you feel whole as person, not because it’s going to make you some internet celebrity or gain social acceptance from your peers. I do not exclude myself from everyone else, but lately I have grown tired of the social media game. We get so caught up in this showmanship that portrays a general lack of personality. My only question is, are we a product of ourselves or social media populism?
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