Inquiry Proposal
Context
I have never been very into social media other than an occasional post on Instagram. Many of my friends are very into it, but I have never been very interested. I think social media causes far too many problems for me to want to have any part of it. During all these years that things like Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter have existed, I have seen far more negatives than positives come out of them. At any given time, you could scroll through any of these live feeds and it would not be very long before you saw someone complaining, cursing, or talking negatively about someone else. That has never been very appealing to me, but I know many people who are completely obsessed with it. For some reason that I will never understand, people all over the world are glued to their cell phones during any second of free time they may have, just to see what people they may not even know are doing. For some people, social media can be a good thing, but for others, it tends to cut them off from the world around them. They become too worried about what party their friends went to last night, or what their cousin is going to name their baby, or what some stranger they happen to follow is having for lunch to be able to focus on what is actually happening in their real lives. I have a friend named John who was notorious for his excessive use of Twitter. No matter where we were or what we were doing, he was always on Twitter. Whether we were at the movies, at a restaurant, or even while he was driving, his mind was buried in his phone. If you wanted his attention, you’d have to say his name at least two or three times before you could break his focus away from the screen. It became such an issue that his parents had to take away his iPhone and give him a flip-phone that was only capable of making phone calls. This solved the issue, but the point is that the issue should have never existed. While some people may have a harder time admitting it than others, it is a very real problem. Being so reliant on social media takes away actual social skills that people need in their every-day lives. It is easy to like someone’s picture on Instagram, or to chat with them on Facebook, but face-to-face conversation is a completely different world for some people. Most people wouldn’t say half of the things in real life that they so bravely say on the Internet. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard about an all-out brawl over Twitter that never ended up escalating into a real life, in person situation. People become so masked behind the screens of their cell phones and computers that they forget that everything they do or say online can affect their lives in the real world. Although some people are able to use social media maturely and for what it is intended, there are far too many people who are not for me to have any urge to participate in it.
Inquiry
Next Steps
I have never thought very hard about this topic until now. However, as I have thought and written about some of the things that result from the use of social media, it has shed a very negative light over things like Facebook and Twitter in my opinion. I am open to listen to the interpretations of social media from other people and resources, but I have a strong feeling that as I do more research on this topic, my opinion will most likely become even more negative than it already is. There are so many problems birthed from the use of social media, that I find it hard to enjoy the good things about it. I understand that social media can be a very positive thing for very many people, but for me personally, I would rather stay away from it. I don’t think that my use of social media will ever extend very far beyond the occasional posting of a picture on Instagram. Even that may get old to me sooner or later, but for now, that is the extent of my social media use. I don’t see myself ever being much of a Twitter user, solely because I think it is boring to scroll through every detail of other people’s lives that I most likely don’t care about.
I have never been very into social media other than an occasional post on Instagram. Many of my friends are very into it, but I have never been very interested. I think social media causes far too many problems for me to want to have any part of it. During all these years that things like Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter have existed, I have seen far more negatives than positives come out of them. At any given time, you could scroll through any of these live feeds and it would not be very long before you saw someone complaining, cursing, or talking negatively about someone else. That has never been very appealing to me, but I know many people who are completely obsessed with it. For some reason that I will never understand, people all over the world are glued to their cell phones during any second of free time they may have, just to see what people they may not even know are doing. For some people, social media can be a good thing, but for others, it tends to cut them off from the world around them. They become too worried about what party their friends went to last night, or what their cousin is going to name their baby, or what some stranger they happen to follow is having for lunch to be able to focus on what is actually happening in their real lives. I have a friend named John who was notorious for his excessive use of Twitter. No matter where we were or what we were doing, he was always on Twitter. Whether we were at the movies, at a restaurant, or even while he was driving, his mind was buried in his phone. If you wanted his attention, you’d have to say his name at least two or three times before you could break his focus away from the screen. It became such an issue that his parents had to take away his iPhone and give him a flip-phone that was only capable of making phone calls. This solved the issue, but the point is that the issue should have never existed. While some people may have a harder time admitting it than others, it is a very real problem. Being so reliant on social media takes away actual social skills that people need in their every-day lives. It is easy to like someone’s picture on Instagram, or to chat with them on Facebook, but face-to-face conversation is a completely different world for some people. Most people wouldn’t say half of the things in real life that they so bravely say on the Internet. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard about an all-out brawl over Twitter that never ended up escalating into a real life, in person situation. People become so masked behind the screens of their cell phones and computers that they forget that everything they do or say online can affect their lives in the real world. Although some people are able to use social media maturely and for what it is intended, there are far too many people who are not for me to have any urge to participate in it.
Inquiry
- Does social media have more of a negative effect on people than a positive one?
- Are the good things that come from social media really worth all of the bad things?
- Is social media too public? If so, what should be done to keep people’s lives more private?
Next Steps
I have never thought very hard about this topic until now. However, as I have thought and written about some of the things that result from the use of social media, it has shed a very negative light over things like Facebook and Twitter in my opinion. I am open to listen to the interpretations of social media from other people and resources, but I have a strong feeling that as I do more research on this topic, my opinion will most likely become even more negative than it already is. There are so many problems birthed from the use of social media, that I find it hard to enjoy the good things about it. I understand that social media can be a very positive thing for very many people, but for me personally, I would rather stay away from it. I don’t think that my use of social media will ever extend very far beyond the occasional posting of a picture on Instagram. Even that may get old to me sooner or later, but for now, that is the extent of my social media use. I don’t see myself ever being much of a Twitter user, solely because I think it is boring to scroll through every detail of other people’s lives that I most likely don’t care about.