No one can deny the fact that the internet has revolutionized the way of human life. It does influence almost the entire human population. With all the useful products and services it brings along it also cripples human beings in some ways, mainly emotionally. Kids, teenagers and youngsters addicted to this piece of technology and wasting hours in front of internet is not so uncommon these days. And with internet and it's services and features finding its way to almost all portable devices like phones, iPods and tablets it's easier than ever to get addicted to it.
Social Networking - Not so social!
The fact is that social networking websites has turned into some kind of a stage where people show off. The other day I was reading this cool blog post (I don't remember the blog name so I cannot provide a link) and it was about sharing pictures over social websites. The author says that we are, these days, not enjoying a trip but we just want to share pics online and pretend we are having a great time to satisfy our ego. And this is kind of true. We take hundreds of photos while we are traveling these days and we never look at them. We talk about preserving memories by taking these photos with our latest hd cameras but our old pictures from a Polaroid camera back at home brought use more sweet memories than any $1000 cameras now available in the market. So coming back to the point, social networking websites are now a medium to showcase your photos, post some philosophical status copied somewhere from the internet and to fill a profile page to impress others.
And the sad part is that many users add friends whom they don't even know. And more friends you've got in number means you are cool (And I don't know who comes up with this kind of rules).
May be in the beginning websites like Facebook served its purpose. Finding a long lost friend. Communicating free with friends and family and all. But I think users have moved on and turned these websites into something they are not meant to be.
Virtual life vs. Real life
People are using smart phones too much to the point they're sacrificing their real life for that. I have a friend who is addicted to chatting. But the problem is he does not pay much attention to the people around him. So whenever we friends hangout he's chatting to some other people using his phone. And when he's chatting with me he probably is with some other group of people. And this is really sad, for me at least, because he isn't having a nice time when he's hanging out. People are glued too much to the phone they are forgetting to relax and enjoy the moment and reality.
I was looking for some pictures to add to this section of the article and I came across the one above. And I really liked this picture (though I would prefer them texting instead of calling) for this section because we can see two girls throwing away some quality time busy on their phones while they should've been enjoying the lake and talking to each other or better having a nice swim.
Too much internet making people depressed and dull
I think using too much internet and social networking is making people depressed and dull. I have a cousin who doesn't participate it any kind of sports or games. He is just interested in social networking websites. So after coming from his class in the evening he starts chatting with the same people with whom he has spend all that day! And it makes no sense at all. Over time I've noticed that people who use internet excessively, especially by compromising their sleeping hours and spending late night hours online becoming more depressed, unhealthy and dull.
Photo sharing and getting likes
Recently, the social networking websites has turned into a photo sharing platform. Many of my friends are too into taking photos, editing and sharing them on Facebook and their ultimate aim is to get maximum number of likes for them. They spend hours and hundreds of rupees to get an SLR camera and to go to some location for photoshoot and even more hours to edit the photos. After sharing them they use all kinds of tricks to get more likes for their photos. Now the end result is an ego boost and mental satisfaction they get when they get more and more like on their photos. This is hours of time wasted just for a little ego satisfaction.
What I did to get over my social networking love
I was never really addicted to social networking. For some reason I didn't liked the concept of it much. The only thing I enjoyed from it was getting in touch with some old childhood friends with whom I lost contact. Once I connected with them I got their phone number and I added them to my contacts. After a while I stopped using sites like Facebook altogether because there was nothing much to do on it. Although I do appreciate the services they provide outside the website like
Signing up on various websites using the Facebook or twitter accounts without having to fill out any forms
Syncing with my iPhone contacts and calendars and reminding me about any birthdays and events
Well, that's it I think. But these features are very useful and extremely important to me.
Advent of Whatsapp and similar services
I think services such as Whatsapp serves the purpose of connecting with friends and family much more effectively than social networking websites. Simply because it's designed for that and that alone. Chat with the people send them photos and stuff, that's it. But when it comes to social networking websites everyone has a public profile and we all feel the need to impress anyone who comes across our profile.
I think we should make aware of the people around us to use less online social networking so that they can social network more effectively in real life. And things done online never gives us true meaning and memories in our life. We should get out more and make friends in real life because that matters later in life rather than the friends and contacts we made online. I am not against social networking I just don't appreciate the way most people use it. And at last I want to say that I am not judging anyone, I am just saying things I feel and my views may be completely wrong and ignorant.
Image Sources (In the order they're used in the article)
http://pixabay.com/en/boy-free-life-enjoy-freedom-lake-185195
http://pixabay.com/en/phone-mobile-girl-evening-hut-14780/
http://pixabay.com/en/man-despair-problem-null-one-65049/
http://pixabay.com/en/photography-photographer-photos-336685