Personal Philosophy

With the barrage of tweets, Facebook posts, and various social media posts that occur in your feeds every day, it is hard to imagine a time when you lived without social media. Every moment of life is an opportunity to document and post about, a potential Facebook post or an Instagram photo. However, while social media helps people connect with friends and share their thoughts, it also has created isolation as people would rather use their phones instead of talking face-to-face. As technology becomes increasingly prevalent in everyday life, it is more important, now than ever, to temporarily unplug and live in the moment.

The usage of technology is driven by the desire to document everything, from our rambling musings to funny selfies. This instinct to capture everything on something tangible, like film or a tweet, is deeply ingrained in most of us. As an eighth-grader in Yosemite, I remember when our group leader pointed out a coyote. We all whipped out our cameras and phones and began snapping pictures of the creature. However, one girl merely stood there, observing the coyote. I later asked her why she did not take a picture and she replied, “I wanted to see it through my own eyes, not through a screen”. At the time, I thought she was foolish. How was she supposed to remember the animal if she never took a picture? Now, I understand that our memories will be sharper if we step away from the phone and fully engage in, not just witness, the event. Not everything about our lives needs to be documented. Although social media can be seen as a digital journal, a way to document our lives, it should not become an obsessive habit that prevents us from really absorbing everything in the present. Trying to post everything on social media can cause us to think more about photo filters, witty wording, and gaining likes instead of living in the moment.

In my own life, I have witnessed how social media has both strengthened and hindered social bonds. Though I have reconnected with friends through social media, I have also experienced how technology can be isolating. I know people who are constantly on their phone, playing games and hungrily checking their social media feeds. It is often times difficult to converse to with such humans because they seem to be preoccupied with something more important on their phones. Since I have never sent a text message in my life (yes, never), I cannot personally attest to the differences between texting and actual speaking. However, just like e-mails cannot completely replace hand-written letters; texting people cannot supplant actual conversation. A conversation without sound loses much of the nuances and personality that comes with speaking. By talking to the people who are around you, you connect with them better than if you used social media.

Despite my opinions about the overuse of technology, I do not propose that we all retreat to the Stone Age and communicate through chest-thumping and cave paintings. I also certainly do not advocate that people completely stop checking their social media feeds. After all, one can only resist the lure of Instagram pictures of cute babies or the ping that Twitter makes when a notification pops up for so long. Instead, people should make an effort to disconnect from technology and actively engage with reality more often. Social media does not need to be as isolating as it has become. The next time you see something interesting, suppress that instinctive thought of “quick, take a picture and post it online” and appreciate it with all your attention and senses. Take a few minutes from pining over home interiors on Pinterest to tidy your own room. As Henry David Thoreau once said, “You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment”.