Look Up! A Twenty-Year-Old’s Perspective on Social Media by Amarjit Singh

Social media has been a part of my entire teenage life. I don’t remember the last time leaving my house without my phone, I actually have driven back home to get my phone when I accidentally left it behind. I can’t think of the last time I was at a social gathering and my friends and I were not glancing at our phones. Even if I am not using my phone at a party it’s at least in my hand. This addiction or need to be “social” surrounds us all the time.

Give people your love, don’t give them your ‘like.’

Twitter, Instagram and Facebook all use ‘Like’ a fast click to let your friends and family know you “approve” or you are there. Liking my classmates’ pictures and tweets are the only way we’re connecting now.

“Is it as satisfying to share experiences online as it is to share them with real-life friends?”

How often are we actually ‘in the moment‘ anymore? When something exciting is happening in our lives, we are busy tweeting and Instagraming about it rather than enjoying that special moment with our loved ones.

This is the Online Generation and although it has its perks, like letting us connect with family and friends from all over the world, this video should make us think twice. Is it really necessary for us to be checking online every minute? You can always check it when you get home, right?

Social Media DOES have its PROS though. This poem is often misleading because even though people do get distracted by their phones, we also use it as a tool when we’re stuck in awkward physical (social) settings. In a room full of strangers or in the elevator, I just look down to my phone to avoid awkwardness and IT WORKS!  Technology does not keep us from experiencing social interactions to the extreme that the video says it does. Love stories are born, grow, and flourish through social media.

This video should open our minds on the balance of technology, it has its perks and it also has its cons! Just like everything does, it’s a gift and curse. So don’t drastically delete your social media accounts, but make some time to go out and interact with your loved ones in person and even meet new people.

And LOOK UP!

My favorite part was reading the poem, so here are the words of wisdom:

“Look Up” by Gary Turk

I have 422 friends, yet I am lonely.

I speak to all of them every day, yet none of them really know me.

The problem I have sits in the spaces between

Looking into their eyes, or at a name on a screen.

I took a step back and opened my eyes,

I looked around and realized,

That this media we call social is anything but

When we open our computers and it’s our doors we shut

All this technology we have, it’s just an illusion

Community companionship, a sense of inclusion

But when you step away from this device of delusion

You awaken to see a world of confusion.

A world where we’re slaves to the technology we mastered

Where information gets sold by some rich greedy bastard

A world of self interest, self image and self promotion

Where we all share our best bits but, leave out the emotion.

We’re at our most happy with an experience we share,

But is it the same if no-one is there?

Be there for your friends and they’ll be there too,

But no-one will be if a group message will do.

We edit and exaggerate, crave adulation

We pretend not to notice the social isolation

We put our words into order and tint our lives a-glistening

We don’t even know if anyone is listening

Being alone isn’t a problem let me just emphasize

If you read a book, paint a picture, or do some exercise

You’re being productive and present, not reserved and recluse

You’re being awake and attentive and putting your time to good use

So when you’re in public, and you start to feel alone

Put your hands behind your head, step away from the phone

You don’t need to stare at the menu, or at your contact list

Just talk to one another, learn to co-exist.

I can’t stand to hear the silence of a busy commuter train

When no one want’s to talk for the fear of looking insane.

We’re becoming unsocial, it no longer satisfies

To engage with one another, and look into someone’s eyes.

We’re surrounded by children, who since they were born,

Have watched us living like robots, who now think it’s the norm.

It’s not very likely you’ll make world’s greatest dad,

If you can’t entertain a child without using an iPad

When I was a child, I’d never be home

Be out with my friends, on our bikes we’d roam

I’d wear holes on my trainers, and graze up my knees

We’d build our own clubhouse, high up in the trees

Now the park’s so quiet, it gives me a chill

See no children outside and the swings hanging still.

There’s no skipping, no hopscotch, no church and no steeple

We’re a generation of idiots, smart phones and dumb people.

So look up from your phone, shut down the display

Take in your surroundings, make the most of today

Just one real connection is all it can take

To show you the difference that being there can make.

Be there in the moment, that she gives you the look

That you remember forever as when love overtook

The time she first held your hand, or first kissed your lips

The time you first disagreed but you still love her to bits

The time you don’t have to tell hundreds of what you’ve just done

Because you want to share this moment with just this one

The time you sell your computer, so you can buy a ring

For the girl of your dreams, who is now the real thing.

The time you want to start a family, and the moment when

You first hold your little girl, and get to fall in love again.

The time she keeps you up at night, and all you want is rest

And the time you wipe away the tears as your baby flees the nest.

The time your baby girl returns, with a boy for you to hold

And the time he calls you granddad and makes you feel real old.

The time you’ve taken all you’ve made, just by giving life attention.

And how you’re glad you didn’t waste it, by looking down at some invention.

The time you hold your wife’s hand, sit down beside her bed,

You tell her that you love her and lay a kiss upon her head.

She then whispers to you quietly as her heart gives a final beat

That she’s lucky she got stopped by that lost boy in the street.

But none of these times ever happened, you never had any of this.

When you’re too busy looking down, you don’t see the chances you miss.

So look up from your phone, shut down those displays

We have a final act existence, a set number of days

Don’t waste your life getting caught in the net,

As when the end comes nothing’s worse than regret.

I’m guilty too of being part of this machine,

This digital world, we are heard but not seen.

Where we type as we talk, and we read as we chat

Where we spend hours together without making eye contact

So don’t give into a life where you follow the hype

Give people your love, don’t give them your ‘like’

Disconnect from the need to be heard and defined

Go out into the world, leave distractions behind.

Look up from your phone. Shut down that display. Stop watching this video. Live life the real way.