Social Networking: A World-Wide Addiction to the World Wide Web

It is no secret that many people in today’s society are incredibly reliant upon social networking.

Whether it’s status updates, blog posts or tweets, today’s forms of communication lie in the hands of our internet connection.

What many users fail to realize, is the more we allow our lives to intertwine with our online accounts, the more we begin to forget what reality truly is. We become super-humans, locked into an alter ego, guarded from the world by computer screens.

The evolution of technology has benefited the world massively, but the growing addictions to social networks will only narrow our minds and bruise our social skills.

I cannot remember the last time my mom came into my room to say goodnight because, instead, she Facebook-messages me to say it. I cannot recall the last time a boy came up and had to awkwardly form small talk with me, in hopes to get my number, because now he can find it by typing my name into a search box.

People have forgotten what it means to talk to someone face-to-face.

The world is controlled, not by its leaders, not by its government officials, but by all the small people, sitting at home, handing power over to people by simply logging into a virtual world. The addictions, the problems, the troubles- they can be stopped if users took a moment to step back from the screens.

It’s about time to pick up the phone and call your sick aunt, drive to the library and take out a book. It’s time to get off the computer chair and walk outside. We cannot allow ourselves to fall into a life powered by a computer.

Deactivate the accounts, open the mind, put on the coat, go
out the door, and experience the world first-hand.

Sometimes everything you need is right in front of you. It’s just a matter of deciding, what it is, that you need.

- Hannah Gerhard