Preet Nuckrich Social Media Makes Us Anti-Social

Subject: Creative writing
Practical work carried out under supervision of Siddique Soomro Sb

Preet Nuckrich

Class: BS III

Roll no: 2k17/mc/76.

How Social Media Makes Us Anti-Social

Earlier in 90's when there were no such technologies like mobile phones, social media etc People used to visit each other more often. They used to spend quality time with their loved ones without any hesitation or permission. Gatherings of friends were much more joyful than they are now. Whereas, the generation of 21st century is only social on social media. People are into it so much that they do not bother to talk to their family and friends in person.

No doubt  social media has benefitted us a lot but also social media has made us anti-social. People are always active on their social circle virtually but when it comes to reach them physically, they are not available. Social media has indeed transformed the way we used to interact each other, unfortunately changes are not always for better. However this situation is something we should worry upon, as people are getting so addicted to the social media applications (eg: Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat etc) that we are loosing interactions in real lives, with our dear ones.

If we just look around , mobile phones have become more than just devices. Indeed they have started controlling us now. We can not stay away from them even for minutes. While we are stuck in traffic jam, waiting for someone, during a boring lecture and even when we sit with our family, mobile phone is that thing we desperately grasp to. Because we want to make sure we have replied to the people we were chatting on WhatsApp, scrolled Facebook or is there any update on twitter. We just keep stuck with our phones, PCs, tablets waiting for someone to be online without even realizing that our family is waiting for us outside this social networking world, in which we are lost.

We have long friend lists on Facebook and many of them are those whom we never met. Few are those whom we have never chatted with. Here we should realize that the world we choose to be social on, is nothing but something really fake which is taking us away from reality day by day. When we check our phones in the mid-conversation with a friend or a family member we are indirectly telling them that the person on the other end of the phone is more important than they are. By doing such actions repeatedly  we loose ability to have serious, focused conversations.

Because its easy on social media people are moving their communications to the world of social networking.
Social Media applications like Snapchat and Instagram allow people to update pictures and videos of their daily life stories, to let their viewers know more about them ( where they went, what they ate, what they wear etc ). These applications are eliminating the need of seeing our friends frequently. Because by seeing their pictures and updates regularly on social media we feel as if we are already caught up on the life of our friends, therefore we feel less need to visit them personally.

Previously on the special occasions like Birthdays, Eid etc, people used to buy gifts and stuff like birthday cards, Eid cards for their dear one’s but now we have ended up by just writing one message and sending it to all our contacts on Eid and writing H.B.D ( Happy Birthday) on a friend’s Facebook timeline on their birthdays.
Its like people have stopped to put efforts in their relationships after the introduction of social media in their lives. The sad reality is people are accepting this behavior and it has now become a normal act. Everyone is okay with it without even realizing how anti-social they have became. Further more, people who use social media a lot are usually uncomfortable in face to face conversations, these people can chat easily on social media because mostly you don’t have to face people and the way they react on social media chatting but in face to face conversation things are different.

Social media is like a barrier among people, specially to those who are in each other’s immediate presence. People check their phones instead of talking to each other. A group of friends sitting at some place and everyone is busy on their phones texting some other friends, instead of talking to each other and having fun. That’s what we commonly got to see nowadays. Its not new to anyone of us, Seeing people taking pictures of the food they eat, new dress they wear, movie they watch, travelled to any good place and posting them on social media to show off or to portray a fake image of " how good my life is" in viewers eyes. Lets say it a bitter truth that people these days show love to their families and friends sometimes only for the sake of pictures, so that they could show their viewers how much they love their family and friends whereas in reality they do not even bother to talk to them. Moreover, people have stopped going out for outdoor activities and sports, they rather choose to stay at home on weekends surfing on internet and chatting with some random friends.

As the excess of everything is threatening , same goes for social media as well. We should limit its use or  else it can create a serious issue in our lives. Specially in younger generation and it could make us un social.  If we want to control it then we should learn to pay attention to the people we have in real world. We  should be present at the place we are sitting or to the people we are with. As being present and staying focused is one of the greatest skills. It will help us to develop better relationships. We have allowed rush of social media to push aside the present moment. Our hundreds of virtual friends on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, are not going to help us even if they wanted to. In the end we always need real friends and family. What a lot of people these days do not understand is virtual friends can not  beat the real ones.

Subject: Creative writing
Practical work carried out under supervision of Siddique Soomro Sb