Effects of Social Media on Modern Culture

The Real Pandemic All Along was Social Media

Introduction

In the grand, illustrious history of human catastrophes, few things have managed to warp the fabric of society quite like the unassuming, seemingly innocuous world of social media. Ah, social media—the digital Pandora\'s Box that we opened with the naive hope of “staying connected.” Little did we know that we were unleashing the most massive digital tsunami of arrogance, immaturity, self-centeredness, jealousy, hatred, and all manner of vices that it would soon flood our minds, our schools, our classrooms—until teens were making TikToks behind the teacher’s back as a way of acting out. TikToks! Of them dancing! On their phones! Needless to say, the future destruction of our society is now guaranteed. Dear reader, this essay is an autopsy of the modern-day plague that is social media—a vivisection of the beast, if you will. At least, that is what I wish it was. But both autopsy and vivisection imply that the subject is dead. That is very much far from the actual case. This beast yet lives. And thrives. And devours. This is, rather, a study from afar by one who has fled to the forests to tell about it.

First It Took Over the Schools

I begin my assessment in our esteemed and once hallowed halls of education, where the influence of idiotic social media memes, dances, tweets, and challenges has become the equivalent of an intellectual zombie apocalypse. Students, you know, the supposed future of our society, now wander the corridors, eyes glued to their little screens, thumbs flicking in a trance-like state. The only time these adolescents come to life is when they realize a camera is on and someone is recording a dance: then they jump into action, twist their bodies, gyrate, and flex, giggle and laugh, post and like—and then it is back to the hypnotic glued-to-their-phones trance. Their minds were once fertile grounds for knowledge and critical thinking (supposedly). Now they are merely breeding grounds for the latest TikTok trends and Instagram filters. The three R\'s (anybody remember them?—even teachers?—reading, writing, and arithmetic!) have been replaced by a new curriculum: retweets, reposts, and reactions. High schools are literally Hell.

The Mutation of Reality

I survived—barely—hoping that somewhere out there in the real world beyond the walls of the average public school, things had not yet quite gotten so bad. I looked beyond the walls of our academic decay, hoping against hope—all too naively I soon found. What to my surprise did I find? Social media has masterfully orchestrated a mutation of reality itself. The world that was once so vast and diverse is now a mere reflection of what can be compressed into a 5-inch screen. Here, reality is not what is logical or factual, ideal or transcendent. It is merely what is viral, sensational—lasting seconds before it must needs be replaced by something even more viral, even more sensational. The world outside school, I found, was an even bigger merry-go-round of insanity—of adults running around like children with their phones out, catering to their thousands of fans in hopes of striking that social media pay dirt. Around the corners of their eyes and mouths you could begin to sense the tension, the dread, the calculation of steps and missteps and concerns about, “What if I’m not good enough?” and “What if I don’t make it?”. If you looked hard enough you would see lurking in the shadows and cobwebs of their mind a despair so sharp and painful that it was everything they could do to stay glued to their screens, at work, while driving, at home, at dinner, in bed, in the bathroom, in the backyard, at their kids sports games—in short, everywhere, at all times—just to keep the despair at bay. Result? Nothing was sacred anymore. Everything had to be shared. Every drama and microdrama, every personal story, tragic or comedic, no matter—it had to be published online. In fact, the more outlandish, the better. I found quickly enough that important news is no longer about the truth; it\'s about the likes, shares, the comments, the retweets. I sat down and shivered.

The Symptomatology of Social Media

The symptoms of this social media disease are as varied as they are tragic. First, there\'s the “Echo Chamber Effect,” a condition where one’s pre-existing beliefs are amplified by repetitive exposure to similar viewpoints. Next, there is “Digital Amnesia,” where the ability to remember or concentrate is replaced by the incessant need to Google everything. After that comes “Viral Envy,” the constant comparison with others’ curated content and filtered lives that brings nothing but dissatisfaction and self-doubt to one’s own life.

In short, everyone is depressed, and everyone acts like their life is amazing.

But now who are the champions of this great social media empire? The influencers, the bloggers, the digital nomads who preach the gospel of a connected world while sipping overpriced lattes and practicing yoga on a picturesque beach? They are the modern-day philosophers—often paid shills who act as social media’s hired hands: they promote the lie that everything they are doing is what will bring happiness if you just engage with their content and try to live the life they are peddling. With their sponsored posts and hashtag activism, they try to lay bricks on the straight and narrow path to bliss, one perfectly filtered selfie at a time.

It\'s Now Too Late

Overall, the digital hydra that is social media has sunk its many heads deep into the fabric of our society, torn it to shreds with its teeth, and left it tattered like a worn out rag, lying in the gutter after misuse and abuse has made it good for nothing. That is the current situation regarding our once proud culture. We have become a nation of idiots staring at ourselves on little screens that fit snuggly in our pockets. We like, dislike, swipe left, swipe right, swipe up, scroll down, upvote, repost, block, and mute to our heart’s content. And at the end of it, we want more and more, like addicts who can’t ever quite satisfy the gnawing pulsation at the back of the brain. It wants, it wants, it wants—and so we go back to social media again and again just to try to quiet that pulsating part of the brain that gets louder and louder and louder—until—something pops.

And pops it does, and pops it will. Our brains have become electric fences that keep the sheep from getting out and getting a good look at real reality. They buzz and hum if anything gets too close to the borderline where truth and falsehood separate. We may think we’re getting truth all day long on social media, but how much truth do you really get from spending two seconds on a post before scrolling to the next? We get more stimulation than anything—more visceral mind-buzzing, feel good highs than real climbs up the mountain. We are in Plato’s Cave; our screens are the wall; social media is the fire’s blaze that casts shadows on the wall, with which we are enamored.