Will we ever get back the lives we had before social media?
The answer is probably no. Our well-being is determined by massive, data-driven corporations who seek to know and control every aspect of our lives in a world of cheap slogans and manipulation.
For a brief moment on October 4th, the world stopped. Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp all broke down for 7 hours. At a bar with my friend when this happened, it was thrilling to see how our behavior changed when notifications and messages w ere off the table.
I feel sorry for my generation (Gen Y). I feel sorry because we had the taste of a normal life with normal interactions.
Gen Y will start having babies soon and those babies will be born in an all-new digital environment. Things are changed. For Good.
Coming back from the bar with my friend I noticed that we hadn’t taken a picture to document our meeting, because we were present in the moment and not thinking about sharing it on social media, we were busy making the most out of our mutual time together (how lovely right?).
When I got home I opened my computer and I was curious. I wanted to know what people think or will do without social media. I opened LinkedIn and launched a poll. I wanted to know which app people would choose to give up on if they had to.
Here is my analysis regarding the answers I got:
Instagram is expendable. People would give it up pretty easily. Instagram is a leisure application. We can live without it even though we are currently addicted to it. Furthermore, Instagram is low on value to most people and not for connecting and interacting with people you care about, but actually following people who live glamourous lives.
Facebook – Although people like to hate, I think most of us still appreciate a lot of the stuff it did for us. Facebook helped lots of people and businesses throughout the years and it’s a great tool to communicate and interact. Moreover, it is great for keeping our memories and that is why we are more attached to and won’t give up on it s so soon.
WhatApp is the one no one would give up, although there are many other messaging applications out there. WhatsApp is a habit -a very strong habit we own. Whatapp is like the air we breathe what makes it impossible to give up on.
The bottom line is that we are all doomed. No, I’m just kidding, we are just a little bit addicted. Those few hours at the bar with my friends showed me that even if it was weird in the beginning without our phones, this is how it meant to be, genuine interaction with each other.
I am optimistic because these few hours proved to me that we as humans are able to return very quickly to our basic behavior, the behavior that benefits us and our environment.
