Social Media Complex

_ “Adarsh! My crush just liked my latest pic!” My friend yelled suddenly. It was a Saturday night, I agreed to go on a walk along with him and my friend was fidgeting with his phone. What I noticed, his eyes lit up as he saw that notification pop up on his screen. I suddenly realized that how can a single notification change someone’s entire mood. And that’s when it hit me, THE SOCIAL MEDIA COMPLEX.

So what is this all about?

Social media in recent times has become a compulsive part of our lives. A great way to connect to people across the globe, isn’t it? A beautiful escape from reality, a medium to share views and experiences. A place to find like-minded people. (And a place to stalk your crush sometimes :p)

While I was getting these thoughts, my chain of thoughts was interrupted. We were on our way back, when my friend started checking his phone again. “Bro, check how many likes I got on my latest pic!.”

Seeing a smile on his face made me think again…

Social media has become such a huge part of our lives, that we are emotionally connected to it now!

Now here's the catch

We spend a huge chunk of our time just rubbing a piece of glass, a platform that was meant to connect people across the world is separating them from our real life. Social media has now become a reflex response to boredom.

Each picture reminds us how paradisiac the world is, or sometimes not. Comparing our real life to the pretentious life just sows the seed of inferiority complex. With every like, every comment and every notification, a dopamine rush occurs and a wave of self-validation, self-satisfaction hits. This leads to higher standards which in-turn leads to more time, more energy and more efforts on next the post.

These are the platforms that are designed to keep us engrossed, and before we realize it, we are way deep into the rabbit hole.

By this time, we were on our way back. We started to talk about social media and how it has influenced our lives. We weren’t able to stick to that topic for a long time (duh, it was a casual conversation between two friends :p). But that motivated me to share this stream of contemplation I had with everyone.

So, where is the escape?

Social media has integrated itself to a huge extent in our lives, and there is no complete escape. But there’s definitely a temporary retreat.

We need to know and acknowledge the social media. We need to control it and it has to work on our will. Just remember, life in reality is not as perfect as it appears on social media.

TAKE A BREAK! Log-out once in a while. Turn on that Airplane mode. Meet people, talk and have fun! Be yourself!

You are way stronger than the SOCIAL MEDIA COMPLEX!