We live in a time that everyday human interaction is not the everyday norm at least not as it used to be. So many people including myself use our phones as a defense against awkward moments, even if that means scrolling through your weather app just to appear busy. I know that I am not the only one, if not the weather app…settings. We take comfort in our phones just holding them, knowing it is there to keep us from those awkward encounters, the silence, it is our generation's security blanket. And maybe I am just addicted to my phone but I don't know many people that aren’t. Perhaps I am late to the party in realizing this but isolation is the universal language in our technology consumption. The need to be alone, the need to avoid those we do not know, why it is so hard to socialize. Technology, specifically our phones are marketed for that very reason. Even when I try my hardest to beat the avoidance I still catch myself in those moments phone in hand. The things that should not feel so awkward somehow do.
I know this is ironic to mention in an essay about isolation and technology but during one of my many TikTok scrolls, I stumbled across a video about modern dating which inspired this essay. Within this TikTok, the girl spoke on dating apps and why those are the reasons it is so unnatural for a person to make a move in real life, why it is now odd to just approach someone and say hi. This got me to think about when was the last time I had just approached someone to say hi and not just in a romantic matter. It is so normal to follow each other on Instagram, see each other in person, and not even glance at one another. Socializing has become more unnatural with the more technology we consume. People are now viewed as numbers or followers, and not friends. Of course, not every follower has to become your new best friend yet to not even acknowledge a person that lives we follow on social media is sort of odd. Technology has desensitized us to each other. We think ten comments is low but imagine ten people coming up to you to give you a compliment. It changes your perspective.
The isolation of technology is something that has seriously affected my personal life especially during and after the covid pandemic. I had been fifteen turning sixteen at the rise of covid and had already dealt with social anxiety and depression. Yet during the pandemic, I found myself in the worst mental state I’ve had in my life. Instead of processing these issues, I spent hours on social media… twelve hours of screen time or more every. single. day. A large part of me felt comforted by the media I had been consuming until the algorithm caught up to the way I had been feeling which only led me to spiral more into my toxic mindset. I had felt so alone and though I had viewed videos that made me feel seen. I had also faced the other side of the media which heavily romanized mental health disorders only causing me to spiral deeper into the depression and anxiety I had been facing. To spend hours self-isolating or bed rotting had become my new comfort instead of speaking up on my thoughts. If it had not been for the isolation that technology brought upon me I could have gotten the help I needed sooner than I had.
As I have grown older, now nineteen, I have seen the effects that social media/ technology is having on our younger generations as well. My little cousins, now thirteen and twelve were the first actual “IPad babies” and to see how they react to the world as well as children their age or younger on social media is very strange. Children can work iPhones better than some adults but cannot read properly in middle school according to educators online. Many of the younger generations lack empathy or the ability to properly read social situations or emotions. And yes this has a lot to do with the parents but also the fact that technology is all that they know. At eight I wanted to be a princess dancer pop star. Eight-year-olds now want to be TikTok influencers and use retinol, and vitamin C. Even though they have no skin issues and retinol is for twenty-five-year-olds. Children now have no real childhoods, even children's toys are fake Airpods, iPhones, and Stanley cups. This may just be me getting older and finally understanding how older people felt with me as a child but….their humor and slang. I don’t get it. My cousins in this age range will send me a TikTok video they find hilarious and all I can do is give it a thumbs up with the straightest expression on my face. But this worries me, the younger generation is so chronically online and lives in a reality that is strictly based on technology that it leaves me to wonder. What is to come of our future, or of theirs?
While I am guilty of many of these behaviors I've listed above, I still find them important to speak on because this cannot be healthy for us. So just in case you forgot, it is a must to socialize no matter how awkward you are. Go outside, enjoy the sun, blue light is horrible, and remember at the end of the day we are more than just the technology we carry so close to us every day. Say hi to someone you follow on Instagram who may not be your friend, let yourself have silence, maybe even awkward moments because that is not only normal but healthy.
Written by Celeste Nieves
Photography by Brett Brunner
Talent, Creative Director: Sophia Querrazzi