Our reliance on social media increases over time
We’ve all been there. That moment when you are trying to have a conversation with your friend but their attention is glued to their cell phone.
The dependency on phones and social media is becoming increasingly worse as time goes on. It is impossible nowadays to do anything in a group without someone being on their phone at any given moment.
People are always wrapped up in the latest Instragram picture, the latest meme on Twitter, or the latest parody on YouTube. But at what point does social media technology stopped being used for information and amusement, and start to become something more engrossing?
The dark side of social media addiction
A new video by Matthew Rycroft examines the dark side of social media. The creepy two-minute video, titled “HASHTAG NOFILTER”, opens with a pair of feet dangling over an edge with a city skyline in the background. The camera pans away to reveal that the feet and the skyline are two separate photos, juxtaposed to look like one, adventurous photo.
The rest of the video shows a man sitting in a dark room creating fallacious Instagram photos. Online, he goes by the username “jennywanderlust” and continuously posts these photos in order to get likes.
Follow or be followed
The video’s description states “the rules are simple… follow or be followed.” It reminds us of what we have been taught all along about Internet usage: you never know who is on the other side of the screen. However, there is a deeper message at the core of the video.
There is a moment where “jennywanderlust” posts a photo on Instagram, and after it’s posted, he looks around the room as if searching for meaning. He quickly picks up his phone to see that the photo received 101 likes, and a smile stretches across his face.
This represents the culture of people who are becoming scarily obsessed with their online personas. The stigma that you need to document your every move increases everyday. And now, there is an added element of “you’re only as cool as the amount of likes you get”.
“HASHTAG NOFILTER” made me stop and think about how detrimental social media use can become. If we are only living to get “likes” is that really living?
