My generation, Generation Z, has grown up in an age where we haven’t known a world without technology and social media. While millennials grew up with it and learned how to use it as it developed, we’re the first generation that can FaceTime our mom, order a pizza and watch an episode of “The Office” at the same time. Among older generations, social media is often seen as a bad thing and the reason why we’re so “addicted to our phones” and have an eight second attention span. In reality, most of Gen Z, 77% to be exact, prefers face to face communication. It almost gives us a break from the digital world we’re usually in. Rather than the eight second attention span adults complain about, we have an incredible BS meter that allows us to decipher within seconds whether something is “worthy” of our time.
In reality, social media can be a positive or negative thing, much like anything and everything else. We constantly hear about all the ways that social media is misused or abused, but we rarely hear about it being used for good. LinkedIn allows us to make connections with people across the world if we use it right, Twitter allows us to share our thoughts with the possibility of everyone seeing it as does YouTube (as evident by virality. Email allows us to reach out to people in the same way Twitter does, but allows us to go deeper (Twitter is great for width, email is better for depth). We can find out what’s going on in the world in seconds, make connections with people and communicate with friends in different states or even countries.
If we use it correctly, social media can be an incredible tool. Instead of focusing on all the bad things, we should encourage and teach people how to use it the right way and for the right reasons.