A world without Social Media

Take a moment and picture your life with no social media.

(While you take into this thought, feel free to continue reading this text albeit it absolutely was possible shared to you on some form of social media platform…)

Without social media, life would inevitably vary. Interacting with someone would have to be in person. It would mean less time surfing on social networks and more time spent in real life. Asking someone to hang out via social networks sounds easier and in case you get rejected you probably will not feel that hurt. However asking someone out in real life makes you feel jittery. Facial expressions are seen, the cracking sound of your voice is heard and the beating rhythm of your heart can be felt. It is always easier to play it off behind the screen than face it out in reality. Using pick-up lines in real life makes the whole conversation awkward, the struggle becomes real when you have to compose a quick witty, flirtatious response and fail to do so within the next 10 seconds before the conversation changes.

Another battle that one faces is trying to sound funny in real life. It is effortless to appear funny through social networks for you may just copy paste jokes from search engines, “retweet” or share hilarious posts or “memes”. Sharing, posting funny jokes or pages through social networks is popular and it works it magic of making people laugh, but making someone laugh in real life is a bit more complicated than it sounds. It does happen sometimes, when you crack a joke and the silence is so absurd that you question your own sense of humour. A joke said in real life demands more precisions, subtlety and timing. Virtually speaking, you can make use of “Emoji” to express your level of euphoria but in real life, it will be seen through your expression and reactions.

Life without social networks means no more daily uploading pictures of you or how your day is being carried out. It equally means no more likes and comments from your Instagram or Facebook profiles. There would be no need for you to make your “feed” look artsy and visually appealing, no more struggling to make your pictures attain the most likes and comments, or for your videos and lives to be most viewed. In real life, the best picture of you is seen and taken with these innovative and all-natural devices called the Human Eyes.

Real life means no more posting on Facebook about how your life seems absurd or how nothing is going right for you. It means no more ranting about how horribly you performed for your exams or how your best friend became your worst enemy. Real life enhances true communication with your parents about how you feel instead of making them appear like monsters by posting false and awful things on Facebook or Twitter. It means going out meeting people and getting to know them through a new different aspect rather than what is portrayed behind the screen. The connection between two individuals automatically becomes stronger and a new type of bond is created.

A world without social media allows you more time to meet and getting to know people. Of course your phone will no longer be the first thing you will look for in the morning or the last thing at night. During hanging out moments, you feel more present without social media because you don’t have to constantly photographs everything, instead you live the moment and enjoy it and you rely on your memory to remind you how memorable it was.

So do we conclude that a world without social networking would be a lot more precarious and socially volatile than the world as it is today? Or alternatively would we have the stress free existence of being ourselves, rather than having to perform a character a.k.a. one’s profile, and in some cases, multiple profiles, on different social networking sites, almost all the time. Yet, we all do it, and compulsively. Can you really call this dependence on social media an addiction when almost everyone is collectively hooked on to it?

Surayya Santally