Opinion

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Technology has made amazing contributions to the world we live in. Technologi­cal advancements have saved lives, brought families closer together through inventions like Skype and FaceTime, and increased our access to information probably a mil­lion times over.

But what has it done to our ability to physically interact with people outside of social media?

Has technology affected the way we approach people? Has it affected the way we handle relationships? The answer of course, is yes!

Go into any public setting and I guarantee you that, unless electronic devices are prohibited, everyone will be on their cell phone. Real life social or public places are quickly becoming the opposite of what they claim to be. Instead of interacting with one another, everyone is on some type of social media website.

When a guy or girl meets someone they find attractive in today’s media-driven world, they exchange information, and the immediate next step is to find that person on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and so on.

Why do people think that a picture or a status will help them decide everything there is to know about a person? Don’t get me wrong, I use Instagram, and Facebook, but I would never let either of these social media institu­tions become my means for deciding if a person is worth my time or not.

Our minds are becom­ing so full of the images and the statuses and the memes that we are forgetting what it means to get to know some­one outside of social media. I have actually had people tell me that they can only truly say how they feel or what they are thinking if they are using social media or texting. Now I know that sounds crazy, but it happens all the time and it has a huge effect on your relationships.

If you are counting on social media to be the glue that holds your relationship together, you are setting yourself up to be disappoint­ed. Just because someone texts you good morning doesn’t mean the two of you are now building a relation­ship together and will one day walk down the aisle. Quality time with someone is still the only way to truly learn about another person.

When was the last time you went out with some­one and you didn’t look at your phone the majority of the time? Your first date shouldn’t be through text! I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a phone or that social media is evil, but it can­not replace physical human interaction.

So is there a solution? That’s hard to say. Can you go a day without your phone? If the answer to that is no, then we may not ever get back to a place where actually sitting and talking to a person is the main way we get to know one another.