Chained to the Ringtone, Not the Rhythm

I don’t remember ever going a full day of class where I am unable to hear a faint “ding” or “snap” noise. Whenever I hear that noise, I immediately know someone is getting a text or a Snapchat notification. As I hear those sounds, I become more and more like Pavlov’s dogs, slowly being conditioned to the notifications on my phone. With every “ding”, I become more attached to social media.

I use social media as a means of communicating with people rather than for entertainment. There are three main platforms which I am attached to: Instagram, GroupMe, and Snapchat. However, my behavior is different from the majority on most of these platforms. I consider myself to be a “viewer” more than a “poster”, as I prefer to keep my life private. Yes, I will post the occasional story so others can know I’m still alive; but other than that, I don’t post to my main page. Like ever.

Instead, I use apps such as Instagram and Snapchat to see what my friends are up to. Nevertheless, I do become more active on GroupMe. I religiously check the app because many co-curricular groups I’m involved with use it. If I fail to do so, I miss out on roughly 10 notifications an hour concerning things I need to do, meetings, and deadlines. Although it may seem that I like social media, I actually hate being attached at the hip to it. I believe this is one of the negative impacts social media has on my life.  

As social media’s presence continues to grow , I have noticed how short my attention span has become. In all honesty, I have been distracted by several text messages while writing this blog post. Do I like having a short attention span? No. But I do feel this is one of the consequences of social media most common among individuals my age.

On a more societal level, shows such as Black Mirror are displaying social media in a dystopian manner. But is it truly dystopian or does the show simply show us the mirror reflection of what society is today? From the episode, “Nosedive”, nearly all the characters are addicted to achieving a higher rating from people and becoming the most ‘liked’ person. Although there are dating apps where people can rate others (i.e. Tinder), a more applicable version for me is the like listed for Instagram or Facebook posts. Having the ‘likes’ present on each post causes individuals to become obsessed with getting a higher number of likes. Consequently, people are less authentic and develop a “fake” version of themselves on social media. Thus, people are trapping themselves in a technological manufactured reality, where humans are being chained to social media. 

On that note, I want to encourage you to listen to a song by Katy Perry called “Chained to the Rhythm”. Although the song discusses how people can be ignorant by living in their own bubbles, I believe the message elucidates the problem our society is facing. More and more, social media is fabricating a bubble that prevents us from interacting with the world around us. It’s ultimately up to us to decide whether we want to stay in the bubble, or break the bonds social media has on us. 

Do you feel 'chained' to social media?

• 100% Yes! I'm a Social Media Zombie
• Not really, I've got limits here and there
• I hate social media....so what are you talking about