We may be over-doing this social media thing

I have a more-than-slightly embarrassing confession here: this week I found myself scrolling through Instagram talking to my fiancé as if celebrities (namely the cast of Pretty Little Liars) were my best friends. Now I am also going to admit that this isn’t the first time this has happened, but this week I noticed myself laughing out loud to celebrities’  , and thinking to myself “Oh Troian and Shay, they’re hilarious.”

No. Joke. I actually thought this and then was mortified, but also, strangely, still entertained and unconvinced that I don’t know them on some level. (I don’t.) In less than a few days I laughed with my “friends” from Pretty Little Liars, admired my good pal Selena Gomez’s hair in a picture with the cast of Spring Breakers and shook my head in concern when Justin Bieber put up a video in which he was clearly under the influence. Do I sound insane, yet?

Thing is, I know I’m not alone in this. And I know this through social media. I read the comments under celebrities’ posts. I see pre-teen girls tell the Biebs they love him and call him “babe” as if they were truly dating (back off, by the way). While pictures had this effect, the addition of video on a site laden with celebrities allows us a fifteen-second personal glimpse into their glamorous lives. And it’s awesome, but it’s also slightly concerning.

Social media is funny in that it can make you feel so connected, yet so distant, and happy yet sort of sad at the same time.

Don’t get me wrong, social media is a great thing. Most of the time. It brings us together with those we may not be able to keep up with in person, and it allows us to share our lives with those who live far away instantly. But I have to ask: What are the effects it’s having on our youth – and ourselves, for that matter? If I, at age 24, find myself so connected with these celebrities who I will never meet, I cannot imagine the effect that this has on the younger kids without the maturity to know better.

Technology continues to advance, and there’s no stopping it.But in the same way it’s advancing, so are our ways of studying its effects. There have been plenty of articles written about the effects of social media on a person’s mood, and theories that social media allows people to build alternate personas. Because when you think about it, to a certain extent, we’re living our lives in a virtual, alternate reality. I can’t touch this blog post, feel it in my hands. It is not a tangible manifestation of my thoughts; it’s bytes. Friendships are physical, touchable, “IRL” things – not “following” functions on websites.

I just genuinely hope that the younger generations continue to advance to these conclusions and don’t get caught depending on social media to harvest friendships with people they have never met.

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