#WhySoSocial | Anxiety and Depression (Pt.1)

#WhySoSocial is a documentary series that looks at the forever growing trend of social media use amongst young people. In this three-part series, Nat Black-Heaven speaks to people that actively use social media, embrace it and live it to further understand its addictive nature.

Part 1 focuses on anxiety and depression amongst young people and their need to not feel ‘left out’ while using social media.

MORE TO WATCH

INSIGHTS & CHILL | DEATH AND DEPRESSION!

AT WHAT AGE SHOULD WE START ENGAGING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA?

SOCIAL MEDIA AND ANXIETY

LOVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

TRENDS AND SOCIAL STIGMAS

LIVING IN A DIGITAL CIRCLE

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION HAS TAKEN OVER

DO YOU GIVE YOURSELF A SOCIAL MEDIA RANKING?

FAKE PEOPLE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

ARE YOU IN CONTROL OF YOUR PHONE OR IS YOUR PHONE IN CONTROL OF YOU?

SOCIAL MEDIA AND GENERATIONAL VALUES

Love on social media

In this new age of social media, can relationships be what they used to be? Can you love someone unconditionally without showing the world how much you love someone? Of course you can but there are people who choose to document their relationship online for the whole world to see?

Getting more “likes” or more “views” or simply just more engagement has become far more important to people than many other meaningful things that we could label as meaningful only a few years ago. We are now seeing people share the most intimate part of their lives as a show to gain an audience and a following to ultimately gain a more monetary status. This is more than a reality TV show, this is reacting to people, demanding to see the ins and outs of the life you live.

But is this really a meaningful relationship? Is sharing every facet of your life keeping your relationship together? If it is… Is that true love?

Trends and social stigmas

We’re living in a life full of trends and what I like to call “the new age of peer pressure.” We’re now more so than ever trying to fit in with our social crowd and doing things that we would have never thought about doing five, ten or even fifteen years ago.

Let’s look at tattoos, gluten free or even veganism and try and understand how and why these have become social trends. Yes, people are educating themselves and become more “open” about such things but people are also seeking a way to become a part of a social setting that where they can “fit in.” With the rise of social and digital media, information is much easier to grasp that in the 90s and we’re being taught or some may say “brainwashed” into following trends unconsciously.

But maybe there’s a point to that…

Non-verbal communication has taken over

We do not need to communicate verbally anymore. We are living in an age of technology innovations where the need to interact with someone with speech has disappeared. With messaging based apps on the rise and the comfort of expressing your mind over a screen rather than face to face takes over, verbal communication will continue to dwindle.

The future will host a world of virtual reality and augmented reality taking non-verbal communication that much further.

Do you give yourself a social media ranking?

Many young people tend to portray their lifestyle on social media differently to how their life really is.

There is a trend where we are seeing ourselves living life in which we aim to raise our social media ‘ranking’ and searching approval from our digital companions through our activity on social media.

We are now glittering our lives with filters and rose tinted lenses while at the same time making our peers feel bad about their own lives. And we are aware of what we are doing!

“Social Media is like cocaine – It can give us an immense high but it can also make us and others around us crash!” – Dominic McGregor, CEO Social Chain.

Why so social? – Documentary coming soon.

Fake people on social media

We are using social media as a platform to portray a life that we are only partly living. We want to show off to people, we want people to see how much fun we’re having and we even sometimes take pride and pleasure in flaunting riches.

We are now using social media to adopt personalities that our closest friends and family know isn’t really us. We use it as a means to stand out from the crowd when we are really just as common as the person standing next to us.

Have we become fake?

Can we learn from Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is popular because it contains a wealth of information made for people by people that for the most part consists of correct material.

However, there are many people who don’t believe in the power of Wikipedia and do not accept it as a format of knowledge.

Just because everyone and anyone can publish on Wikipedia even if they’re not a well-known journalist, even if they’re not a New York Times best seller or even if they’re not a published academic does not mean that their points are invalid or untrue.

But what can we learn from this domain and why is it one of the most visited websites in the world?

What would happen if the internet shut down for a day?

The internet has become a way of life for almost everyone in the western and developed world. Most people use the internet daily and although there was indeed a time when the internet did not exist. It is now incredibly difficult to think or even live in a world where there was no internet.

With the way the world-wide web and all its assets are used today, if the internet were to disappear for a 24-hour period, it would cause extreme havoc and dismay amongst the general public. Massive global, technological conglomerates would shut down, causing the way we go about daily routines to be rethought. If the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon disappeared for a day, how would we react? Sure, we would deal with it but how would we deal with it and what questions would arise about our reliability on the internet?

How would the 15 year old Californian, high school girl live her life without being able to go on Snapchat? Today’s world suggests that she would waste away into thin air…