Social media such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp (whether WhatsApp is actually social media is debatable but for the purpose of this article let’s assume it is a form of social media) provide great ways to communicate with your friends and families. Social media lowered several boundaries; for communicating with an old friend, or even meeting new people online.
But…. I’m quite sure most of us have been or even participated in a situation like this: 
(http://imgur.com/gallery/fMRGF)
Ever been in the situation were you don’t feel like talking to the person next to you at a party? Solution, grab your phone!
A birthday party or just hanging out with your friends and suddenly everybody is playing (Chatting? On Facebook or Twitter?) with their phones. We could consider this an example of antisocial-behavior. Let’s take a look at a definition of both social and antisocial:
Social: Inclined to seek out or enjoy the company of others; sociable
Antisocial: avoiding the company of other people; unsociable
If we take a look at the definition of social, you could conclude that we are in fact enjoying the online attention and company of others with the use of social media. You could say that online we’re indeed becoming more social.
On the other hand, I believe we’ve become so addicted to our smartphones (partly due to social media) that, in certain situations such as the picture shows, we are behaving anti-social without us even noticing it.
Now I’m not the only one who believes this is a problem in modern society. You can even argue that children growing up with social media and chatting nowadays don’t properly learn how to communicate face-to-face.
What do you think of this problem? Did social media make as more social or antisocial? Do you think it is a problem?
A possible solution for this problem when you and your friends go out to dinner or for a drink is as follows. At the beginning of the evening everybody has to turn in their phones and put them somewhere everybody can see them; let’s say on the middle of the table. The first one to grab their phone pays the bill! Try it if you dare, you might get a free dinner 😉
If you do consider this a problem, did you and your friends came up with a solution??
I think this is a big problem. It is a kind of vicious circle because if someone grabs his phone someone else follows and because there are less people to talk with you instantly take out your phone too. Me and my mates made an agreement (kind of sad) to put our phones in a box which we don’t open before we go home.
About the kids who grow up with this problem it will be a big social problem. If parents go out with the kids they always bring a tablet with them, because when the kids are running around at a dinner they give them a tablet to sit down and to literally shut up. This is only one example of the many you can think of. I even have a six year old cousin who has an own tablet and on a party there was a laptop which he tried to use but he didn’t know how to use it because he only swept on the screen. Kind of fun though..