5 Things I Dislike About Social Media

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First let me say, I love social media just as much as anyone else. I love to pin things to my board, retweet my favorite comedian, and occasionally post a shameless selfie. Never-the-less I sometimes cannot stand it!  I am not afraid to admit that, like many, I have a love/hate relationship with social media and here are some of the reasons.

1. It is taking away from people enjoying moments.

Everyone is so into sharing what they are doing and/or being nosey and looking at what someone else is doing, that they seem to forget to enjoy what they are doing. Now it seems like people go out just to take pictures of where they have been and tweet about how much fun they are having.  NEWSFLASH, if you are really having that much fun then you wouldn’t have time to tweet and wonder who liked what picture. It is disturbing that every time I go out to eat or to a bar, all I see is people on their phone!  What happened to human interaction? People have become so isolated that they are extremely socially awkward and they do not care.  They are more concerned about not missing an update, then actually having an in person conversation. I have never understood the “out having so much fun” post, when in actuality you have been sitting down looking at your phone the whole time.  Couldn’t you have done that from at home?

2. It gives people false sense of accomplishments.

Just because you have thousands of followers does not mean you are a celebrity. People do stuff now just for likes and repost/retweets. They feel like they are accomplished because they gotten over 200 likes on a picture. This is not an accomplishment, yes it is good and it shows people enjoyed your photo or thought, but what are you doing in your real life?  People can be whoever they want online and it happens all the time—insert Catfish episode here.  I know so many people who according to their social media pages have the BEST lives, but when you get to know them it is all highly fabricated.

3. Everything has become so transparent.

Though this has it benefits, it also has its downsides.  It seems like every app wants to share what you are doing? My Facebook friends do not need to know what pictures I have liked on Facebook and Instagram. I personally don’t care what songs you are listening to on Spotify and I don’t want you to know that I am listening to the Spice Girls greatest hits (guilty pleasure). I also don’t want you to know that I posted or tweeted something in Hoboken, NJ, so now you are asking me “what are you doing in Hoboken?”  Now anyone can search your name find out your work history, where you visited in the past year, and what you said that night you were wasted and started to drunk tweet? Is no one else freaked out by this?

4. The constant platform changes makes it confusing.

It seems as soon as I finally get comfortable with a layout these apps/sites decide to switch it completely. The “update” is always more confusing than the last one and always claims that it will benefit the users by making it easier and more of an enjoyable experience; total BS! Companies always want to outdo each other and make their product the best, but it only turns people away. If you already have millions upon millions of users, I would think companies would realize the user likes it as is.  Simple updates can be fun and sometimes useful, but when a whole platform is changed it rarely embraced with open arms.  Simplicity is key and these companies don’t seem to get that (which is why that confusing Google+ never became a hit).

5. Makes me rethink some friendships.

Everyone has had a friend that they loved to be around until they became friends with them on social media sites. You have the people, who are quiet and chill in real life, but you make the mistake of “following” or “adding” them and you soon realize why they are so laid back.  All they do is post any and everything, to the point you wonder if they are getting paid to do so.  Or you have the friend who you post the most ridiculous things and it makes you see a completely different side of them.  You wonder if they can really be that simple-minded and naïve or if you are being pranked.  It is pretty sad how your whole relationship can be killed with someone because of social media.

Though I remember days without social media, I often wonder what that would look like now?  How would this world function if for one day people could not use technology?