Do you feel closer to your friends and family because of social media, or do you think it keeps you apart?
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Social Media is an interesting phenomenon because in my opinion, it does the exact opposite of what it was promised to do. Of course, it has served well for businesses and the like. And of course, it can be used for communication BUT it has reduced drastically the communication skills of people and increased deception. Most people online are not truthful and allow misleading narratives which influence people at a mass scale. This is evident all around us. People talk more in statistics and less in connection with you. There are more accusations than conversations. Consequently, people have lost the art of conversation. Time flies by quickly and life is unlived, because people are almost always bent over their phones. People are living life for figures that do not mean anything.
No, social media and it's influence keeps people apart. It's argument for connection is now outdated.
How often do you use your phone or computer to talk to people compared to meeting them in person?
This is a neutral stand for me. Back then, we can assume people spoke more in person than on...what? They made use of letters still. This would be assuming people live nearby and we get to see all the time, which we don't. Technology made it easier, I believe, to talk to people, as we are all not of the same circumstance.
I talk to people as much as I talk to them online, though the quality of conversations are now altered.
Can technology help us make new friends, or does it mainly connect us with people we already know?
Technology can help us make new acquaintances, work partners but NOT friends. The cases of close friends from the internet are extremely rare. Most are just superficial and/or unsafe. Acquaintances on the other hand come from niche circles such as: gaming groups, crochet group, writers groups, etc. Like-minded people are met and needful ideas and events are shared, and mostly, that is all.
Real human connection is hardly made online and technology only connects with people who we feel we already know but are only just riding the waves of social media.
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Have you ever felt lonely while using social media? Why do you think that happens?
Most times. So many content is being thrown at us and it is hard to keep up. Most times I discover I have been on my phone for longer than necessary. The time passed, the works undone, the overwhelming plunge back to a dull reality and its contrast to the colors on social media pulls me to a kind of despondency. It stimulates you like a drug and leaves you helpless afterwards.
As knowledge is now unbelievably free, it is fair to say I still use social media but only the type in which I am intentionally learning from. Such as YouTube and Spotify(for podcasts).
How has technology changed the way we communicate with each other?
We are less vulnerable with each other. It is true with human nature that we protect ourselves from from hurt and this is prehistoric fact. But to connect, we need to vulnerable. And there is less vulnerability now than there was before.
Someone once said, people can go their whole life without communicating. That communicating is the effect of what you say and not the words itself. And I think that is very true for this generation.
We know how to talk but we don't know how to listen. So we impatiently hear what the other person has to say, and keep talking in no consequence of our partner's word.