Social Media: The Oxymoron

Social media fascinates me. We can now be connected to the every day lives of people all across the country–and the world. I’ve found that one of the most interesting of its uses is that it allows us to see our culture as a whole, first hand. Further, that same culture is a manifestation of the assumptions and principles we Americans have taken up. It reflects how we see ourselves and our relation (or lack thereof) to the whole of society.

Despite my amazement at such an achievement, what really irritates me is the people whose lives must be defined by how many people “like” their statuses, tweets, or Instagram pictures–how many “friends” or just “followers” they have. In their eyes, social media is not for keeping up with the lives of their family or friends, it’s about promoting themselves. These people are everywhere! I think this is a sign that there is no significant community in America and no conception of the common good. These are phenomena which are reflections of the newest religion on the rise in America: individualism.

Yes, religion. Why? Because nowadays, it means we are our own gods. Our desires and our rights have replaced any sorts of objective ethical principles or standards for the sake of what we define our own happiness to be. You think I’m kidding? Please, just for a second, take a step back and look at the society in which we live. What is the predominant attitude that people take towards each other? It goes something like: “I’m going to live my life, and you live yours, and as long as we don’t get in each other’s way, we’ll both be happy”. We have become a community of islands holding on to the vague idea that we are unified. But what really unifies us anymore except that we are all islands in the same ocean?

And I mean, here’s the thing. I like social media. It’s very useful! My point is simply that it scares me how much it has replaced any real community and how it reflects the individualistic society we have become.  This individualism–this relativistic definition of happiness–has taken on a deistic sort of identity which frightens me. What happens when definitions of happiness begin to clash? What takes precedence? Further, we have lost a sense of unity or working together towards a common goal. This isn’t happiness, this is self-obsession–individualism–which will become increasingly detrimental to our society if it is not stopped. Let’s stop being navel-gazers and remember the character of the country which our forefathers fought so hard–as one–to free.