Imagine a sunny summers day with your best friends, eating lunch under the shade of a tree and the grass beneath the blanket on which you lay.  Listen to the genuine heart to heart conversation while you witness their facial fluctuations as they pour out their latest adventure to you.  Only a few of us may remember these times.  The times before everyone had their own cell phone.  The time before all the social media sites.  Where did these times go?  when will we realize nothing can replace the sincerity of a face to face conversation?  Generations are being lost due to the overuse of technology.  The more kids socialize on their social media sites, the less they’re experiencing real life social interactions.

technology and social media has created within us a screen gazing zombie.  Often we are so concerned about knowing what’s going on in our friend’s live’s and the hussle and bussle on the other side of town without even knowing what’s going on in our own current life around us.  We could be walking the streets of a city without looking up once from our phones.  Do you understand how detrimental that is and what social media is doing to our society and culture?  People are scared to make conversation on the streets because it’s not normal to make conversation with other human beings anymore.  Kids are so lost in their technology that they don’t know how to talk to adults compared to kids the generation before.  we’re losing out on quality face to face time spent with family members, friends, and others.  Two friends could be in the same room socializing on multiple social sites without even speaking a word to the other one in the room, yet talking simultaneously to 5 friends on social media.  Every second we spend on our phones, we lose countless opportunities to experience and interact with the physical world around us. 

Not only do we lose out on human face to face encounters with the world around us, but the way social media has shaped our culture has been the worst is has ever been.  Social media has created unrealistic and impossible standards of living for everyone, especially women.  Social media is all about image and self image.  To promote yourself and your image without the genuinity of your personality.  Social media has painted a picture for young women to live that is not possible to live.  As a result, kids face horrible rejection and depression because they aren’t able to live up to the standard that social media says they should be.  The media says it’s alright to show more skin and “flaunt what your momma gave you” and treat others in manners not acceptable to generations before.  Our culture has been shaped for self pleasure and self image.  It’s all about me and what i can get out of it or how this will make me more likable.  No more is culture about serving others and dressing modestly and respecting others.  No more is culture about looking past the physical aspects of someone and looking at the genuinity of their personality. 

Although technology and social media has created monsters within us, technology has been very beneficial to society.  Technology has helped us from sciences to environmental conservation to alternative sources of energy to feeding whole countries.  Technology and it’s new inventions never ceases to amaze me.  However, society is falling further and further from face to face encounters and quality time with your family.  Further from going out and seeing the world with your own eyes instead of seeing it through the lens of your friend’s phone.  Put away your phone, shut down the display, give people your love, don't give them your like.