Look up !

Look up! It's this video I just stumbled across that made me question our present-day attitude towards social media, friends and life in general. It made me question our way of interacting, making new friends and living. Is it true that we spend so much time staring into this tiny screen, updating our so-called friends with the latest news and hoping that someone presses the like-button? Hoping that someone shows interest (even if it's a strange way of showing interest) in our lives, or at least the part of our lives we share to our virtual friends. Isn't it strange, that we attach such great significance to what other people think about our latest status update or a new profile picture? To me, yes, it seems strange and I really ask myself where this development may lead in the near future.

Some weeks ago there was an article in the newspaper, reporting about a competition between teenagers actually taking place on facebook. Everybody wants to have the most likes for his or her profile picture or new status update and the highest number of  so-called "friends". A real competition. How can someone really attach so much significance to social media? 

When I take the bus after university and have the pleasure to catch exactly the one with pupils from primary school or secundary school, I enjoy watching their behaviour on the bus and then I'm sitting there and do nothing else but that. It amuses me and at the same time makes me question education these days. I've also been growing up with playing computer games or watching TV, but most of the time I was outside, playing cops and robbers or hide and seek with the other kids of the housing estate where I was living with my family. It was a great childhood and I wouldn't want to miss it. We built tree houses and were roller-skating as if there was nothing greater than that in the world. It was such fun! But nowadays, I sit on the bus, watch these young kids staring into the screens of their iPhones and the only thing they are talking about (IF they are talking to each other) is something about the facebook profile of another girl or the new picture of someone they know. 

source: trulymadlyhappy.com

I don't want to generalize now, but most of the time it really is like that. And there's no big difference to people at my age. When there are five people waiting for the bus you can be sure that at least three of them are either talking to someone on their phones or doing something else with their phones. Of course it's a nice way of passing time while waiting and I'm not that better but maybe we should rethink this whole social media thing and our relation to smartphones. 500 facebook friends are nice but useless if you're not able to communicate in real life. Maybe, like in the video, you'll miss a great opportunity if you only lead your life on facebook but are unable to really live it. Enjoy both, every struggle and every great conversation, every minute you spend with your friends and family and every new experience, every single second of a journey and the moment you return home. Enjoy life as a whole - no matter what other people would comment if you posted a picture of that moment on facebook. So please, look up!