Week Fourteen: Mcluhan and Media Future

For years now, I've been watching social media applications like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat grow. Something intangible and unreal is now a large part of my life, and most likely yours as well.

It's interesting to look at a person's Facebook and then look at them in real life. Are they the same person? Most likely not. They are two separate identities. A lot of things come into play when generating a Facebook post or deciding if you want to put up a risky pic of you and your friends partying: who's going to see it? Will I get a lot of likes and impress my friends? Should I angle the camera like so to hide the gross pimple I got two days ago? In real life, you get what you see. But on social media, you get what that person WANTS you to see. A clear effect of this type of thing is getting "catfished" where someone pretends to be someone they're not.

Social media apps became an outlet where people can talk, share, bitch, debate and flirt with other people. What's the effect of this? Poor human-to-human skills is the elephant in the room. Let's say Tony is breaking up with Becky, but Tony doesn't want to deal with seeing her cry. So Tony dumps her on Instant Message. Not only did Tony not experience the human-to-human emotion of breaking someone's heart, Tony now learned that he can do something without all the consequences. The next day, Tony goes to school and is approached by Becky's older brother who wants to fight him after school for breaking his sister's heart insincerely. Instead, Tony goes home and tweets about how lame Becky's brother is. Now the entire school is mad at him and thinks he's a coward, which he is. Don't be like Tony.

What I'm trying to say is that social media can be a short cut to doing actual social things with actual people. This can effect someone's future in many ways. Some can be work ethic by always being on Facebook, personability's so poor that you don't ever get passed an interview, and many more.

I don't think there should be a law against the amount of time we use social media, because that's dictator-like and scary, but maybe we can put our phones away for a Saturday and just relax with friends and family to make sure we continue to hone our ACTUAL social skills.