Amelia Milton

Is Social Media Disconnecting More Than It Is Connecting People?

Digital natives, those born into the Digital Age, are surrounded by social networks. Instead of meeting up for a get together at a certain time and place, social media has flipped this on its head—now it’s all the time and everywhere! I’d like to ask how this is affecting the way we interact with and care for each other, the way we think of and care for ourselves and even to the extent of what we do and who we are becoming with our added virtual persona. A case could be made that social media is disconnecting people more than it is connecting them. It could be argued that the diversity of human relationships and communication cannot be substituted for the people we choose to connect with from behind a screen. The growing market of social media applications is beginning to redefine human connection. Are we escaping the complexities of reality to enjoy a seemingly simpler ‘virtuality’? Are we shortchanging ourselves?