If you’ve read ‘What it’s About’ then you’ll have a bit of an idea on why this blog is here and why, after a very long ‘put it off’ phase I’ve popped my procrastinating head in the bin and Reconnect Central has finally been born!
So, let’s start with social media. I’ve come to think that pretty much everyone has a love/hate relationship with this little gem, introduced long enough ago to have become a virtual necessity in most people’s lives because heaven forbid we should have to live without it for five minutes.
But is it the necessity that we believe it to be? Is it heck, but for many reasons it’s certainly become a way of life for most of us. It almost seems as if every member of the newest generation is being born complete with a mobile phone clenched in their little fist ready to survive in our new detached way of life.
‘Aw, congratulations Miss Jones, little Jemima is healthy and beautiful and has the latest iPhone already attached to save you the hassle of having to go through months of nagging to buy her one in the future. Good luck and cheerio!’
There are countless reports and tv programmes telling us what we already know to be honest – that social media is having a devastating effect on society, how it is replacing face to face interaction with detached, touch button conversations and how most of us are addicted.
But why is this happening?
Well, it seems one of the many reasons is that every time we get a like on Facebook, someone comments on our latest Instagram picture or we are notified that our latest tweet about our daily lives has been retweeted by whoever, little demon hormones are released into our bodies and make us feel all doolally happy about ourselves. This is a good thing right?
NOOOOO! -because that happy hormone is totally addictive and whilst it’s good to be addicted to ‘real world’ happy, the world of social media , in the main, is about as fake as the tooth fairy (sorry to burst any bubbles with that revelation).
We are becoming addicted to a world where we compare ourselves to seemingly happier others, scrolling away countless hours of our lives. As a result we absorb heaps of inane information that serves little more purpose than to make us feel inadequate, reach for an entire packet of Jaffa Cakes and proceed to chain post them into our miserable faces.
Even worse, we are losing the skill of conversation, our ability to feel empathy and so many other things that are essential to us little humans and our emotional wellbeing.
It may be a cliché to say we are social animals, but it’s a cliché for a reason!
The really sad thing about our addiction to technology and social media is that more and more of us are slowly forgetting how overwhelmingly better it feels to be ‘real world’ happy.
That happiness we get when we interact face to face with friends and family, when we pick up the phone (presuming we ever put it down) and hear our best buddy saying ‘Fancy going out this weekend’. The sound of real laughter as opposed to a hastily typed ‘LMAO’ and the warmth of a big fat squishy hug instead of a cold and empty emoji with a smug expression and pretty naff jazz hands.
I mean, what even is this?
Shoo, go away yellow demon. Get off my blog!
I’m not suggesting we should give up technology and social media and mobile phones completely, but how great would it be to stop this crazy mass addiction and get back to the basics that really count – real life, real people, real emotion and real experiences.
There are countless reasons why we are addicted to so much of this nonsense as well as many ways we can learn to use the technology at our fingertips productively and beneficially whilst enjoying real life experiences – I’ll be touching on all of these in other posts.
The important thing is that we acknowledge the potential it has to make us feel detached and unhappy and that we start considering ways to combat it, one life sucking, attention draining App at a time.
Ah, and thinking of baby steps, why not set your alarm for half an hour from now, put your phone down and don’t pick it up or look at it until that alarm goes off ………………………………………………
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