Recapping the Call to Change of the Role of Social Media In Our Lives

Is social media making us socially awkward? How online relationships are affecting real-world relationships. My call to change is not necessarily a shock to many, as we are well aware how much time we usually spend and waste on social media. I desired to understand how we got to this point. Working my way through history, starting in the 16^th/17^th centuries, I found out what media existed and how it was used throughout time. This helped me understand how it evolved into something that enslaves many of us today.

Starting with my very first post dealing with call to change, I actually started with a topic dealing with useless conversation starters. I talked about  how we should liberate ourselves from pretending to care that we actually want to talk to people, and instead, find ways to desire and seek after conversions we can enjoy and build relationships from. I found that this topic didn't have much to support it, but it allowed me to build into my topic of social media and the importance of real life relationships.

In my second post, I was able to formulate my original ideas about social media and how it has made us less social. I received very good feedback from an online forum in which I was able to hear from both sides of the argument. Overall, people seemed more concerned that it was affecting our everyday social lives. This gave me even more desire and concern to bring this topic to the attention of many.

My third post, the video, was my first opportunity to express some of the things I researched, and offer a call to change. This 2 minute speech contained the main points I desired to talk about, including my changed frame of reference referring to a more healthy, balanced lifestyle, and learning to use social media wisely.

The final post I blogged about to prepare for my final call to change speech helped me formulate some examples and ideas from history (20th/21st century in this case) that I could use to support my argument. Some of the examples I found dealt with new technological advances, media manipulation such as propaganda during the World Wars, and how we have essentially replaced relationships with the internet. This was great because it added some meat to my bones. It also made it easy for me to do the same for periods dating back to the 16th/17th centuries as well. During this time, I found that 'social media' was used in the Italian Academies where scholars created nicknames, developed motto's, and exchanged poems/letters.

Combining elements from all these posts, I was able to build up to my final call to change, which I feel could not have been done without this process. My communication changed overtime as well, from written, to oral through video, to visuals, to oral with visuals. It helped build confidence and understanding by doing it this way. I also felt I was a robot when I first talked about my call to change. Now, I feel completely like myself and my presentation reflects my personality and my own twist on the subject. This allows me to be real about the subject matter and express how I feel about my call to change. It created a level of concern for me, and I hope it does the same for others. We need real life relationships, and we can't let social media enslave us, make us socially awkward, and keep us from those valuable relationships.

Update:
Kenneth brought up a great point of does it actually matter how we communicate. I think this depends on the person. The way I view it is I would start to feel feelings of loneliness. For me personally, I would need those real world relationships to survive. My call to change would be directed more at that audience because social media can get us into that trap.

Makena also pointed out my lack of historical relation. My basis for that was more focused on present day problems since in today's day and age is when the problem started to happen. I used other periods in time to help set up how we got to those problems, or in other words, some of the roots that brought us to the point of wasting our time away on aspects of social media that could hurt other areas of our lives. To comment on the humor, that is a part of me that I can't give up in any situation. I refuse to be a robot, so my style definitely stayed true to myself which was what I was going for.

To finish up, my call to change isn't to get rid of technology, it is to use it correctly and for wise purposes. Many people proposed call to changes to use technology, but they were all for good purposes so I would agree with all of them. I may be speaking against it to a certain extent, but only to the part in which we could fill wasteful time with things of more value and concern. I plan to do just this. I will limit my useless time spent on social media, and instead, fill that time with things pertaining to my goals, such as trying to get married, and to live with God again.

Thank you!