In the current times, it appears as if social media has taken over.  What is the purpose of social media you might ask? Social media serves as a way to keep us up to date with the lives of our family and friends.

You can easily walk into the cafeteria and pick out a table of multiple people – all with cellphones, laptops, or tablets in front of them of course. Phrases such as “Hey, did you see that picture on Instagram?” are becoming all too common. Meanwhile, other things like actual conversation are seemingly becoming outdated. Is the purpose of social media being defeated?

It’s so easy to say that social media is taking over actual interaction and catching up with one another due to the fact that we’d rather post our pictures on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook rather than telling someone about our day or what we were doing when taking that picture.

Some could argue that social media’s purpose has not been defeated. The pictures and statuses we post serve as a way for our friends and family to know what’s going on in our lives when we’re not around them. We may get a little carried away, refreshing the newsfeeds for the latest posts instead of physically being with people and catching up. However, a lot of times, these things serve as conversational topics. Since what we do online is such a big part of our lives in these days, some of what we read or see tends to get us thinking and opinionated. Because of this, we have something to discuss with whom we spend our time. If we see something online that sparks our interest, a lot of times we’ll show those we’re around and talk about it with them.

When we see groups of people looking at social media or texting, it’s easy to automatically say that we’re avoiding actually socializing. When we’re with our friends, we don’t always remember to talk about things that concern us and need to be let out. Scrolling through our feed and remembering a post we saw is an easy way to remember that there was much to be discussed. It’s okay to want to check your Facebook or update your Twitter as long as you mind that there are peers around you that you can easily interact with, without all the electronic devices.