Written by Arianna Posega.
Photo by Uyển Trang Nguyễn (ivy).
This piece was written for the June Theme: The Digital Age.
Too frequently, in the past few years, social media has caused upheaval. Our technological, social-media obsessed society gets criticized, very often, ironically, through a comment on Instagram or a Facebook post. This itself serves as proof that social media is enrooted in our way of living. Is that too strong to affirm? Probably, for those who believe that the online world will ruin us, but on the other hand there are many sides of social media that are positive and help to create, inspire and motivate people from all around the globe.
Too frequently, in the past few years, social media has caused upheaval. Our technological, social-media obsessed society gets criticized, very often, ironically, through a comment on Instagram or a Facebook post. This itself serves as proof that social media is enrooted in our way of living. Is that too strong to affirm? Probably, for those who believe that the online world will ruin us, but on the other hand there are many sides of social media that are positive and help to create, inspire and motivate people from all around the globe.
Today I’ll focus on one of them which is the possibility to connect and create friendships with people that reside in another country, or even, another continent. In the past it would have been “normal” to meet someone while visiting another country or by simple encounters on the street just to find out you have a lot in common with a stranger that came from far away to visit the same place as you did, and then establish a connection with them. This would consist of exchanging handwritten letters, which later became e-mail and now switched to Facebook messages or even Skype video chats. Having friends from around the world wasn’t weird, but it was more difficult to meet foreigners and it clearly took a lot more time and effort to stay in touch with them. Nowadays, you can meet people that speak a different language, live miles away from you and even have different alphabet letters on a daily. There are websites that you can sign up on to find people who would like to exchange letters or packages, you can reach out to someone on Instagram instantly by sending them a private message or add someone on Facebook just by clicking on the “Add as friend” tab. So quick, so easy (typical for our fast-paced world), but shouldn’t we say incredible as well? Isn’t it amazing how we can connect with humans that are so far away from us in such an easy way? Only a message or click away from creating a bond. Inexplicable if we were told to image this fifty years ago. Yet, it is possible in our world that is by many considered saturated with social media.
I cherish this opportunity of getting in touch with people that are so far away from me so much and as I’m writing this I have a countdown set on my phone that is counting the days left until I meet one of my internet friends for the first time. We’ve talked over Instagram, video chatted and messaged for the past year and developed a beautiful friendship that I feel extremely grateful for. I find it fascinating that social media enables us to create something so deep with someone we’ve never seen standing in front of us, hugged or got coffee with. Two beings that are miles apart, yet there is a friendship in between, passing countries and rivers and mountains and maybe even oceans, a bond that is not affected by distance and only keeps getting stronger. A beautiful opportunity that we are given by the “damaging” and “imaginary” world created by social media.
 . This piece was written for the June Theme: The Digital Age . Too...){kind=link}
Post a Comment