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My On-Again Off-Again Relationship


A person gets sucked into their laptop screen from too much social media

11/22/18

Media is a double edged sword in my life. It is both a positive, but more so negative addition to my lifestyle. There are many benefits such as that it is my way of staying informed on both the current national and international news. It also allows me to observe points of view different from my own, I can connect with others, I have the opportunity to potentially gain a broader understanding the world and much more.

However, it also can be a very destructive force for me. For example, I do believe that social media is a factor of anxiety and extreme levels of stress at times. From this constant gallery of other's lives I think that what we do or how we look becomes a competition which I become engulfed in. I feel that I must be a contestant in a game which nobody can win, but I become so convinced that I must be the best. That I am lesser and that I must become better.

I also think that media offers me the opportunity to gain other perspectives, but I choose to surround myself with opinions similar to my own, or I immediately approach the alternative view critically and without any open-mindedness. Additionally, media offers me false information or feeds me "facts" that then limit me from knowing the other side of the story or the full truth. I often get fed only a fraction of the story when there is a whole other side that I then become oblivious to. I am given this sense of knowledge that is potentially false.

It also encourages me to conform to society. Social media is definitely the most detrimental aspect. The sad thing is that I try to detach myself from it, but I only find myself coming back to a screen. There is a difference between healthy and unhealthy communication. Yes, media is effective and honestly necessary for me to contact others or take in information, but on the other side I do not need to see every place that my peers have been to. Everything that they do. I'm sorry but I do not.

Media has sucked me in, and it is very difficult to return. In the future I hope to utilize the media, not for a template of what I should be, but only as a source to improve my life and knowledge. I hope to be involved in this world and become aware of the problems, not of the latest trend. Media offers so many positive concepts, but I do not take advantage of the positives and instead have become easily absorbed into the more negative parts. Now that I have analyzed my relationship further, I do believe it is quite unhealthy which I hope to improve with time.

Comments

  1. Kate TullyDecember 9, 2018 at 11:29 PM

    I agree with the point that you brought up in your 3 paragraph. I think that often times we use social media to reaffirm beliefs that we already hold, we choose not to broaden our horizons because other viewpoints are too unfamiliar. We might be exposed to these diverse ideas, but it's sometimes difficult to step out of that comfort zone that we are clinging to so desperately.

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