Are we becoming a generation of Social Zombies?

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Are we becoming less social?

I understand that this might be a strange question to ask in a time when almost everyone spends their days constantly refreshing their twitter, instagram, snapchat, facebook (I could go on) feeds. 

A recent article by The Times noted that we spend an average of 2-4 hours on our phones each day. When you see the numbers written in front of you it’s INSANE. Of course my initial reaction was denial “NO WAY do I spend 2 hours on my phone everyday!” but once I actually thought about it, it (scarily) made sense.

I wake up and like the majority of the people I know I immediately check Instagram to see what the Americans have been doing whilst I’ve been asleep. Twitter is the next stop where I read the ‘In case you missed it’ tweets and then I head straight to see what’s trending (usually something to do with Trump or Brexit) to gather the information I need for the day before even putting my feet on the cold bedroom floor.

Randomly throughout the day I will refresh my instagram and twitter feeds and in the evening I purge through both apps to devour everything that has been posted whilst I was at work.

Scrolling through one of the apps a few days ago I realised that I wasn’t really taking in anything that I was seeing. It has become a habit, muscle memory. If I’m waiting for something to load on the computer I’ll automatically reach for my phone to fill the time, if there are adverts on the TV I’ll tap onto Snapchat. It is as if we cannot let our brains be still.

“This generation is more connected than ever”. I’ve heard this line muttered umpteen times over the years. In terms of having access to millions of people worldwide this sentence is undoubtedly true but when it comes to people’s actual real lives I disagree.

When at a pub or in a restaurant I see tables of people with their heads buried into the bright blue lights of their phone screens. Silence. People are connecting but not with the flesh and blood beside them.

The need to be constantly connected, for our brains to be forever active and the need to be validated at all times is unarguably chipping away at our mental health. 

It seems like the only time we are switched off is when we are asleep and even then we sometimes pick up our phones in the middle of the night.

More young people than every are suffering from mental health problems and of course this could be down to a variety of different reasons but it is hard not to see the amount of time spent on social media as one of the main culprits.

Somebody (I can’t remember who) stated that if we as people were to consume crappy, fatty, sugary foods 24/7 then we would expect our bodies to begin to rot inside and that we should also think about this in relation to our minds. If we constantly consume crap, trashy ‘news’ (Hiya Daily Mail) then our minds will begin to suffer. 

Don’t get me wrong I like social media, it’s handy for my job and to keep up with what’s going on in the world but we need a break from our screens to stop this ever threatening journey to becoming a society of social zombies. Maybe in 20 years time when the Walking Dead will be on its 30^th season it will be a load of living people walking around with their eyes glued to their devices. Ok, maybe not, but it is food for thought.