With 2015 coming to an end, it’s not unlikely you have taken some time to reflect upon the past year. For me, this year was especially exciting: I travelled to five different countries, went to a multitude of concerts and museums, and took time to hone in on my passions and interests. Most importantly, however, I spent this past year alongside people I love, both in person and online.
Yes, online.
Throughout my travels, I made friends from across the United States and beyond, and there’s no question that chatting online has been the easiest, most convenient way to catch up once we returned to our respective homes. As “three-quarters of Generation Y members have a profile on some social networking site,” according to PEW Research Center, it has become increasingly easy to communicate with and get to know someone online when there are barriers to doing so in person.
One must consider, however, whether our generation’s increased online presence has perhaps made it too easy to stay connected. Between checking Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, among other social platforms (Vine, LinkedIn, Venmo?), we have perhaps grown reliant on those sites to inform us of what everyone is doing, from our friends and close family members, to random classmates, that boy from your teen tour circa 2011, and the girl from your freshman hall. With the growing pressure to post online for the sake of keeping our friends followers up to date, we can’t help but continue to refresh and scroll through various news feeds to unlock yet another chapter in someone else’s book, all the while narrating our own.
Although our generation is considered to be hardworking, confident, and open-minded, we might also be more reserved and lazy when it comes to showing off our real selves in front of the screen, as we grow reliant on our online personas to speak for us. It is remarkably easy to “get to know” someone just by doing a quick scroll through his/her profile, which maybe encourages us to jump to conclusions about that person. After all, it’s not uncommon to hear, “I stalked her on Facebook. She seems really cool,” or “I stalked him on Facebook. He seems really weird.” This sort of attitude encourages us to quickly dismiss a person, often based on trivial matters like his/her photo captions or favorite restaurants. We instantly lose or gain interest after looking at someone’s profile without necessarily getting to know that person in person. And while someone’s social media personality can occasionally speak for him or herself, it’s important to remember that there is definitely more to any one person than their current cover photo.
While the debate over the importance of face-to-face interactions has been well discussed, it is a worthwhile topic to give more attention. Looking back at 2015, I can’t help but think that I didn’t spend enough time really connecting with old and new friends. I am left to wonder how we are, indeed “connected,” even if we aren’t connecting at all?