The thought was haunting me. Nagging at me. Should I send the text? Would they respond? What would we talk about? It's now or never. I hit send and closed my phone.
Summer introduces a new species of stress for me – stress over reaching out to people. I've always found it harder to stay in touch with my friends over the summer when I don’t see them every day; especially the ones who you have a pretty good friendship with but aren’t on a daily texting basis with. Sometimes I find it hard to send that first text and reach out to someone I haven’t seen in weeks.
Social media hinders this process even more.
While I do not have any form of social media, I have witnessed first-hand how my friends interact with apps like Instagram and their limitations. Scrolling through pictures and posts is the way people communicate nowadays. It seems that people think liking a post is a way to properly interact with someone.
They’re in Canada.
How is it for them? I don’t know, I didn’t ask. I just saw their post.
Social media replaces meaningful conversations over text, phone call or face-to-face. Apps like Instagram display so much of one’s life that it removes the need to have deeper conversations. At least for me, if I had Instagram, I could imagine how caught up I would get in looking at pictures. It would be even harder for me to reach out to someone if I “already knew” via posts what was going on in their life. It eliminates a certain obligation to have a conversation.
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Yes, taking that first step and texting or calling someone can be challenging, but at least it ignites a real conversation with someone. At least you can hear from them directly how they are. Social media can give you an in on what is going on in someone’s life, but it’s doing the work for you. It gives you the information you need and lets you off the hook. It forms a cocoon around you and blocks you off from the world of authentic communication.
On social media you don’t need to put yourself out there and contact your friend. You are purely a spectator. Social media takes away the personality and humanity of real human interaction. Personally, I’d rather experience a moment of stress debating whether to text someone than avoid having a conversation all together and take pictures for an answer.
I believe it’s more important to take the leap, even if it’s just a mini one, and reach out to that friend of yours. Even if you don’t know them that well, it’s more meaningful and personal to have a real conversation with them. Yes, it might be awkward, but you reap the benefit of making a connection and staying in touch with a potential lifelong friend. Escape your cocoon.
Isabella Vesperini (she/her) is a sophomore majoring in journalism and minoring in Italian.
