Is social media dehumanising us?

In a technologically-savvy world where someone in Nigeria could have conversations with someone all the way in Vienna (Austria), with the press of a button, the world is and has indeed become a small place. And incidentally, the need for connection and communication is an essential part of us as humans and being able to do this in real time is the beauty of technology. Hence, the beauty and usefulness of social media. But what happens when all we do is connect with others who are not with us and not noticing the very ones in front of us? What happens when we spend so much time connecting that we forget to disconnect?

Researchers have been looking into the negative effects of social media. Could it be dehumanising us?

According to The Huffington Post, “Human beings are losing their ability to communicate in person. To smile at each other. To converse. To enjoy a meal together without looking at their smartphones. This is a tremendous loss that cannot be quantified”.

One of the basic needs of humans is the need for communication, to be seen, listened to and heard by the other person. We are social beings and we thrive best when we can interact with others; even introverts need others. Losing this essential need could mean losing our very humanity. The beautiful joy that comes from a heartfelt conversation with a friend cannot be fully put into words, it is something that try as it may, technology cannot fully translate into a video call. And there have been research studies telling us and showing us that, too often now, people ignore those sitting right in front of them and concentrate on their phones while missing the chance to engage in meaningful conversations with those around them in person. I have experienced this many times. A couple of months back before the pandemic, I took a social media break and it made me realise how much time we spend on our phones. In one instance, I was having a conversation with a friend and the whole time, she was on her phone. She could not even give me her undivided attention!

However, you might argue that the goal of social media is to communicate with others and that even if you are doing that through text messages, you are connecting with someone else. This is partly true but it does not often capture the full picture. Studies show that typing words to send to someone is not the same as conversing face to face. We see this in the vast number of twitter trolls that mock people which likely would not be as pervasive in direct human conversations; and how often we see people type rude, discourteous things that they probably would not say in person.

When you communicate through a device, it is possible to forget that the person you are communicating with is a full person with complex feelings and ideas. It is easier to see a cardboard image that you can throw words at. This is probably why some find it easier to send a text than to speak in person. As humans, we hate to intentionally hurt others’ feelings even if we completely disagree with them, looking into their eyes forces us to see their humanity and lessen the blow of hurtful words to prevent the pain.

A researcher, Dr Lee Keyes notes, “Technology basically renders the person on the other side flat like a one or two dimensional character. So you lose out on all the nuances. It is easy to react to what is an incomplete interpretation of another person. We tend to filter things out a bit when we are dealing with a human being”.

Another vital part of our humanity is our thinking ability. Our ability to solve problem, to research, to come up with solutions through thoughtful consideration is something that makes us human; and it seems that even this is being threatened by social media. The goal of technology is to make that job easier, to half the time but rather than that technology appears to be becoming an extension of our mind and “we are not able to unplug”. The posts we read and react to, the comments we interact with and the people we communicate with, we are supposed to take time out to reflect on all of that and then make decisions drawn from our reflections and conclusions.

How do we do that if we never take time off our phones? The more dependent we are on a piece of technology, the more attached we become and the more attached we become, the less we are able to think independently or creatively. So, often now, people are finding it hard to remain with their thoughts. Our fast paced world makes it feel like we must always be doing something but if we are constantly on the move without taking the time to recharge, how do we go on being constantly refreshed persons able to meditate and reflect as pivots for new engagements and actions?

For instance, right before I took my recent social media break, I read an article in which someone said that she finds herself constantly distracted and unable to concentrate for long periods of time ever since she started becoming more active on social media. It got me thinking about myself, I realised that the same thing was happening to me. I needed breaks from everything, I found it so difficult to read a book, and the very thing that used to bring me joy had become insufferable. Writing articles meant taking short social media breaks every 10 minutes. I had become addicted. It was time to take action and suddenly it started getting better. Once I was forced to sit with my thoughts a bit more, I found it easier to write, I even had more things to write about just because I was thinking, not regurgitating social media speak.

Perhaps the saddest part of this is losing our creativity. Our ability to design and build new worlds comes from thinking critically and imagining things that no one else sees. When you are unable to think, then you become unable to dream and see the bigger picture. We have become so focused on the here and now that we miss seeing what could be. An article in Karbon Magazine explains, “rather than starting with an outcome in mind, then using technology to help achieve the outcome, people are only seeing the step directly in front of them. Solving problems requires thinking about a big picture, breaking down the problems into steps and then executing them efficiently”. Imagination is seeing the whole picture that no one else sees and creativity is bringing that to life. Creativity is a component of our very humanity, such that we reduce ourselves to less than human when we deliberately lose our sense of and motivation for creativity. This is one more aspect of dehumanisation we are experiencing from our uncritical use and devotion to social media.

It then means that we have to force ourselves to pause at this point and evaluate how we have been using the social media in order to reclaim ourselves, our dignity, our sense of relationships, our thinking, our creativity, our humanity. We need to stop this inexorable descent into dehumanisation and inhumanity through our uncritical use and devotion to social media. We have seen the ugly result of the use of social media to summon and perpetrate hate and violence in many places, particularly as validated in India and in the regrettably continuing genocide against the Rohingya in Myanmar. And this perhaps, should be the time for us to review our wholesale devotion to uncritical social media use and work to institute corrections that would ensure a healthier use of and recourse to social media going forward if only to save us all from the present diminution of our humanity and the possibility of greater negative consequences down the road all on account of our pervasive unhealthy use of the social media.

• Wale-Olaitan is an educationist.

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