Social media has become so important nowadays that great majority of people cannot even imagine life without it. It has reached levels of universal hypnosis in where people check their devices on autopilot regardless of the time of the day and circumstances. The content that keeps coming out of these devices seem to bear much greater importance than anything they may be doing right now, except maybe work.
It has become such an obsession that majority of people actually believe that information provided on their devices is so important, that they must check it at least once every ten minutes. In addition to this, I also think that the same group of people also believe they are interacting with other people (although unbeknown to them) and therefore, they are sociable. The worst cases are when groups of people that are physically together and should be interacting spontaneously between them are more focused on their devices and basically limiting all conversation on online content. This is symptomatic to bars, restaurants and other similar places in where people are increasingly isolating themselves from others thanks to their unhealthy relationships with their electronic devices.
When this phenomenon is observed from outside, it gives you an alarming impression that we are all becoming more and more estranged to one another, which begs the question – what is more important, our devices or people we are surrounded with? I guess the answer will vary from person to person, because every one of us will have his/her own view on this subject, but mine is undoubtedly that those devices should be forgotten, when we socialise with people. Or if we are in social places, we should at least make an attempt to socialise with other people without phones.
The pace in which the world is changing is staggering and in particular the alarming devolution of our social behaviours, when being with other people. If somebody told mere ten years ago that this would happen, I would not believe them. Back then, I could have never and certainly not in my wildest dreams imagined that people would become so obsessed with technology, that they would eventually start to change their core behaviours. We are talking about altering their basic emotional needs, such as closeness to others, seeking their emotional support and aiming to be part of a group.
But, as this phenomenon of “social distancing” continues to gather pace and keeps evolving into many different ways, such as online following, liking and other forms of delusional online interactions – I’m starting to realise that we’re becoming less and less human and more robotic (predictable) in every sense. Because people have programmed themselves to interact with these devices, as an extended parts of their beings. In fact, most of us are seeing these devices as the mean to socialise with others, at the expense of doing it properly in real life situations.
In addition, no one seems to have taken a sober look into what they are doing by examining their behaviours and above all the content they are ingesting. By systematically evaluating contribution, such online content creates for their own intellectual and spiritual growth. And this is the sticking point, because increasingly people are becoming hooked on to constant feeds of short blasts of information (relevant and non relevant). Instead of applying more traditional ways of learning consisted of more appropriate ways, such as reading books, participating in intellectual discussions and meditating with a view to steady their mental faculties (thoughts and emotions), hence heighten their mental focus.
One of the key outcomes of this newly created behaviour is inability for majority of people to learn effectively by being able to skilfully digest information provided, particularly if it was presented in a more complex way. As a consequence, it impacts drastically their ability to communicate meaningfully with other people in real life situations. In here, we are talking about their inability to correctly verbalise their thoughts, ideas, concepts and even emotions (so other people can understand them properly). The primary culprit for this rather alarming situation is obvious lack of “listening skills”, which comes from ability to “zero” in on what was being said/presented, hence through application of process of “experimental learning” (information evaluation through questioning) to properly digest served information.
This unfortunate dysfunction was created by constant repetition of short snaps of highly non relevant information that creates thin neurological circuitry in your brain, which over time will diminish your ability to mentally focus down and concentrate on something for longer periods of time. Because in so doing, you will condition your brain to seek only short and possibly non relevant information for what you truly need. In so doing, you will significantly diminish your ability to think critically, which is essential for effective dissection of information for effective learning.
In addition to this, you will develop incoherent information gathering system that will significantly limit your thought processing and your ability to meaningfully converse with other people. Because of already created programme that only accepts small bits of information at the time, thus preventing you to use your full mental potential. That is a self imposed limitation, which you have brought on to yourself by unconsciously checking your device every moment of the day. In so doing, it is quite likely that you are probably watching short videos and messages that have little or no intellectual value and as such require no intellectual input in their processing and storing. In short, it steadfastly degrades your cognitive faculties, thus severely limiting your ability to process and memorise information correctly, due to highly non relevant information.
As a health coach, I am very big on the interchange of energy, which only occurs when two or more people are interacting as a group for the purpose of exchange of information. In some ways, this can be interpreted as being social, but it is one of our basic human needs, because it enables us to release and exchange that so much needed “emotional energy” that feeds our souls. Being social is not just a statement, but it has much greater altruistic values for each individual concerned. Because when we feel part of the group, we are fulfilling one of our most essential needs, which is to share and belong. Failure to fulfil this most basic emotional need can lead to some serious dysfunctions, such as depression and even heart failures in more drastic cases.
The exchange of energy is done below our conscious awareness through socialisation with other people and when this is done in a good faith and pure heart – it can galvanise everyone concerned beyond anyone’s imagination. In particular it can help stabilise and improve your mental and physical health and wellbeing. All this is done by all participants correctly using the full spectrum of their mental and intuitive faculties through observation of their own thoughts and feelings, thus enabling everyone in the group to feel content and accepted. Now, if we attempt to translate this exchange of energy to the world of social media – unfortunately it doesn’t work. Because all interactions come from the “empty” space (your device), which also reflects back “emptiness” (constant content feed), which is not sufficient to provide you with the emotional support you get, when surrounded with genuine people around you.
This now brings me to the point of how effective and useful social media is? On the face value, it provides the window to the whole world, because you can interact with anyone at any time, regardless of whether you know these people or not. With a single post or video, you can reach many people in different corners of the world, but as stated above, this type of communication is so impersonal and sterile, that it cannot create desired emotional effects, which is only possible when interacting directly with people.
Story telling can revoke emotions, but if repeated in similar manner, you’re starting to lose your audience. So you must keep innovating things at all times in order to keep your targeted audiences interested and engaged, which contributes toward addictions on all sides. Because people are so empty emotionally, that they’re hopelessly looking into empty world of cyber information to fulfil their growing void from within, which complicates things further.
In my opinion, social media acts as a good “ice breaker” and effective way to introduce something new and interesting, but it isn’t the problem solver for someone who feels lonely. Because it lacks the emotional punch that is usually created among people who desire to create mutual bonds. You may delude yourself that you have millions of followers, but do you know who these people are? Have you ever met them in person? Do you know their true needs? If not, then all you’re doing is pushing out what you think your followers might be interested in, which involves lots of guess work and many hours formulating content after content.
If you are really good at online self marketing, you may even have fan groups. But now comes the crunch question – how much do you know these people? Do you at least have an idea as to how they truly feel about your posts and things that you are regularly posting in cyber space? You may have an idea, but do you really know? This is not a critique – but an observation, because even seasoned marketing professionals keep constantly guessing, no matter how much data they collect. They don’t know their target segments personally and therefore, they guess their needs.
In order to test this statement, you may wish to ask yourself these questions: how do you feel every time you put your device down? Do you feel great, energised, excited, happy, fulfilled and inspired? If so, great and keep enjoying your interactions with your apps, because maybe that is how your targeted audience feels too. However, this is a guess, because it is quite possible that you don’t even know for sure how you feel about doing these things either, apart from being hooked on your online social approval rankings. Being truthful to yourself is so important, because no matter how successful you get online, that doesn’t automatically translate into you being successful in live socialising with other people.
On the other hand, if you are not getting a kick from checking your social media posts – what is the ultimate motivation for you to keep checking your devices, as often as you do? Oe what motivates you to do what you do automatically? What emotional satisfaction do you get from doing so? The main reason as to why you must start asking these difficult questions is to evaluate your existing habits and emotional states that you predominantly experience. If you feel unhappy, you must identify the root causes and deal with them without delay and if your social media addiction is the problem, so deal with it accordingly.
In the old days, people used to go out and socialise by interacting with each other in various public places, whether it be for romantic relationships, business or anything else. Nowadays, all you need to do is check your electronic device, log on to you favourite app and off you go – you’re in! Loneliness, fears, social anxieties and depression are constantly on the rise and this phenomenon has exponentially increased since introduction of social media and the recent research unreservedly points out that separation is making us less skilled to effectively communicate with each other. Most technologically savvy people find personal forms of communication extremely unpleasant and stressful and prefer to resort to cyber space in where they feel superficially safe. That is one form of escapism, which exacerbates already mentioned disconnections among people and with it growing mental health issues. Because whether we agree or not, we’re wired to interact with others directly and there’s no substitute for old fashioned face to face gatherings. Because that’s something we all yearn for regardless of age, gender, religion or race. The only meaningful communication is when we interact directly with each another.
True happiness is the only thing that matters in life and it comes from fulfilment and constant exchange of energy and physically socialising with other people. Other forms of interactions are empty and without meaning. The purpose of life is to create meaning from moment to moment and the emptiness created by dwelling in the cyber space is not going to fill it, no matter how interesting and interactive social media becomes. So next time you sit down with your friends, family or even people who you don’t know yet – choose to ignore your phone or tablet and pay full attention to them and observe your emotions. If you’re not used to this, you might find it challenging at the beginning. But if you persist, over the period of time you will rediscover the joy of living and you will have less urge to check your devices, because you will be more skilled and willing to interact with others naturally. At this point, you will start to see great emotional changes, which will alter every aspect of your being. If you don’t believe me, why not give it a go and see it for yourself. After all – what have you got to lose?
If you wish to know more on how to how to properly evaluate your thoughts, emotions and even your own bio energy field, please visit our website www.energy-savvy.com for more information. In particular we would like to draw your attention to our 20 weeks online course, in which you will be able to study and master various powerful mind, body and energy altering techniques, under our watchful eyes. If you have any questions, you may wish to contact us on info@energy-savvy.com and we will be more than happy to assist you in any way we can.
