Smartphones and social media keep us connected in real time and facilitate communication. But overuse can damage our mental health and cause us to miss important moments. Balanced use and a digital detox are necessary, and a harmonious coexistence between technology and humans is key.
How is your social media?
‘○○○ commented on your post’
‘○○○ and 39 other people liked your post’
‘232 unread messages in Telegram’
It’s 10pm. You’re sitting in the subway on your way home when your smartphone notifies you. I turn on Facebook and check the comments. You’ve just posted a photo on Facebook, and a comment asks you where you took it. You reply to the comment saying that it was taken at the cafe in front of your house and leave Facebook. Now I check my Telegram unread messages. Most of them are from Dantok (a group Telegram room). There are too many to read, so I go in and out of the chat rooms to clear the numbers in the notification.
This is a common scenario for people who use social networks like Telegram and Facebook. Whether you’re at school, at home, or on the road, you always have a little 4-inch world in your hands. This tiny four-inch square screen is constantly stimulating us and pulling us into it.
Why are we addicted to social media?
Humans are “relationship animals. We need to be part of a group, to rely on each other, to communicate, and to be recognized. Our emotions of joy, sadness, happiness, and unhappiness always start with relationships.
Smartphones have been around for less than a decade. We’ve quickly become enmeshed in a mobile-based “information spider web,” these tiny devices have become an extension of our bodies, and our society has become so tightly connected that we could call it a “hyper-connected society,” connected to each other in real time. How did we get so overwhelmed by smartphones and social media so quickly?
Neuroscientists suggest that we need to understand the evolution of the human brain. Long ago, when humans lived as hunter-gatherers, our brains evolved to hunt for food and pay attention to signals that alerted us to the presence of enemies. Even today, when we are no longer hunter-gatherers, our brains are designed to be sensitive to and respond to calls from our surroundings, according to neuroscientists. That’s why when someone calls your name, you pay more attention to the sound. Today’s smartphones, they explain, are devices that mediate the brain’s instinct to respond to these cues from moms, friends, and coworkers. In other words, we answer the call of the smartphone for sustenance and survival. Add to that the comfort of games and information for lonely humans, and you have a powerful smartphone. This is why mobile SNS such as Telegram, Facebook, and Naver Band have become the main players in the new world.
At the end of the day, SNS is all about bragging and showing off. We all want to be the star of our own lives, and to do so, we need an audience. Social media fulfills this need. People want to be recognized as the author of their own lives by posting glamorous pictures of their lives on social media, and they comment on each other’s pictures, giving them an audience. For many people, social media is a place where they can tell each other that they’re in charge of their lives and become each other’s audience. However, Facebook posts are not just about showing and updating your day. On the one hand, it’s a place to showcase the good parts of ourselves and hide the bad. On the other hand, it’s a place to show only the good and hide the bad. In the end, social media is a place where no one is the real protagonist and no one is the real audience. So sometimes I feel sad about this space.
A world full of interruptions
Mobile social media may be a symptom of a “world full of distractions,” a world of constant notifications. However, it’s still too early to tell how much real-time reactivity and immersion through social media will contribute to civilization as a whole, as we’ve only been using smartphones for a short time.
In order to live a balanced life, we may need to control and rethink our constant connectivity through social media, and we may need to decide right away whether we want to be connected or disconnected in our lives. However, no one has yet found a clear reason to refuse to be connected unconditionally. For the time being, the fear of being erased from someone’s life, the pressure of being marginalized from society, will force people to allow “push notifications” and keep the switch on all the time.
Social media, which we started using for fun, to stay informed, to share our daily lives with others, has gotten us into trouble. We wake up in the morning and stare at this square screen until we close our eyes at night, wondering if we’re missing something important.
I don’t need to borrow from experts to tell you that the constant bombardment of information on social media is hurting my thinking, critical thinking, concentration, and creativity, and I’ve become a very sensitive and timid person. It’s bittersweet when I catch myself focusing on how people react to my words and photos.
Neuroscientists warn that too much social media use can shrink the size of your brain’s gray matter, turning you into a popcorn brain that only reacts to spontaneity. It’s time to take a look around to see if your brain has become a popcorn brain, insensitive to the feelings of the person you’re actually talking to or the slow-moving realities of life, and if there’s no one left to eat popcorn with. The ‘me’ of SNS is only a 4-inch ‘me’.
SNS has become a part of our daily lives
Nowadays, social media is more than just a way to communicate, it’s changing the way we think and live. From the time we wake up in the morning until we go to sleep at night, we check social media dozens or even hundreds of times a day. On the subway on the way to work, in the cafeteria at lunch, and in bed before going to sleep, we can easily be found with our smartphones in hand. Social media has become so embedded in our daily landscape that it has a profound impact on our lives.
However, this phenomenon is not necessarily a negative one. Social media allows us to share information quickly and stay connected with people. Things that were once difficult to do due to time and space constraints are now possible in real time through social media. For example, it’s easier to communicate with family and friends overseas, and it’s definitely a positive change to have access to a variety of information in real time.
Social media has also become a powerful tool for individuals to make their voices heard. Information dissemination used to rely on a small number of media outlets, but now anyone can freely express and share their thoughts. This has played a huge role in creating a society where diverse voices can coexist.
However, despite these benefits, it’s important that we maintain a balance in our use of social media. Excessive use can be harmful to our mental health and can cause us to miss out on precious moments in real life. It’s important to develop moderate usage habits and sometimes take a digital detox to truly unplug from social media.
Harmonizing technology and humans
In the future, the harmony between technology and humans will become even more important. Technologies like social media can enrich our lives, but how we use them is more important. In order for technology to have a positive impact on our lives, we need to become smart users.
This requires not only individual efforts, but also societal efforts. Starting from the education system, we need to include education on the pros and cons of social media use and provide various support measures to protect our mental health. In addition, social media platform companies need to improve their policies to encourage healthy usage habits among their users.
Conclusion
Social media is an important tool that has made a huge difference in our lives. They have allowed us to connect with the wider world and become more informed. However, while enjoying the benefits of these technologies, it’s important that we maintain a balanced life. We need to cultivate proper usage habits, and sometimes take a break from the digital world to enjoy the precious moments in the real world.
In the end, a harmonious coexistence between technology and humans is the future direction we should pursue. We need to become smart users so that social media can become a tool that enriches our lives. In this way, we will be able to create a better life.
