Growing up, my dad was always against social media. As a tween, I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t allowed to have Snapchat, TikTok or Instagram, but now I get it. Having sat in many classes in a school that is like any other in America, I have witnessed the distracted faces and fingers moving quickly under the desks pecking at dimly-lit screens, sending a sea of acronyms across the virtual universe. Consumed by a life behind a piece of glass, they are facing a world where nothing is real. 

Unreliable news. Photoshopped pictures. What happened to reading a newspaper (even virtually), diving into a great new release, or playing cards or a board game? These things have been replaced by addictions to airbrushed photos, stupid pranks and 15-second Instagram reels. Some students are glued to their devices throughout class, missing out on learning, blowing off the opportunity to engage in group discussions and ultimately squandering valuable, real-life social skills. This same generation of gen-Zers would rather say “Alexa” or “Hey Siri” or Google their way through life. 

Social media continues to foster a world where people do not know how to communicate with others. Society is losing its voice – literally. This defeatist factor in modern society is dumbing down America and making the youth afraid to be themselves. Social media has also influenced the youth to feel stuck in a cycle of waking up and repeating the same thing each day. It makes it easy to feel like you are never enough because of the open opportunity to compare your life to someone else’s online, ultimately coaxing you into focusing all of your energy on a world that doesn’t even exist. 

The sky’s the limit. Isn’t that what we are told from a young age? Why, then, in a world where we can be anything, would we actively choose to be someone we truly are not? Why divulge every ounce of your existence into a profile? The truth is, I wish I grew up in a time period when social media didn’t exist. The simpler days. Man, now I sound like my dad.