Is social media ruining our time at Uni?

Our world has become enwrapped in social media: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc.  If you’re a student there’s a considerable chance you connect to one or more of these on a daily basis.  Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook now play a huge role in our everyday routine: we wake up we check Twitter, we stop at a red light we glance at our phone.  The up and coming generations will never know a life without social media.  At Scriptoeris, we agree, these sites have their perks: they allow us to keep in touch with old friends and family, plan parties and get togethers and share our lives through pictures and videos.  However, have we become too concerned with updating our status and less with socializing?

Are you up in your dorm room uploading pictures or grabbing a bite to eat with a friend? The point of being away from home is to open yourself up to the world.  College should be about your experiences, and documenting them is a part of that but it shouldn’t be everything.  Life is all about moments and if you spend those moments with your eyes glued to your phone or computer screen then you’re not really living, are you?  If you’re more inclined to tweet someone rather than walk down the hall and talk to them in person then something needs to change.  I am the first to understand that becoming absorbed in social media isn’t difficult, however you must remember that time doesn’t stop for anybody.  Time is a precious thing and you’ll be cheating yourself by not taking advantage of what you’re given.  First you’ll deny plans one night, then a weekend and before you know it you’ll find yourself dependent on those social sites.   There’s nothing wrong with wanting to share your memories with family and friends, however we must know how to limit our time on these sites.

We want to encourage our readers to take a step back.  You won’t want to miss that joke your friend made where her laugh was funnier than the punch line, or the chance to connect with someone because you were too busy checking Facebook, or even missing the love of your life because you were busy uploading a picture of your lunch. Capturing moments is a wonderful way to remember times with friends, but missing the chance to live in those moments is not how we should experience our lives.  Living your life to its fullest is embracing everything it has to offer.  It’s not meant to be lived through a three inch screen.