Head in the (Instagrammed) Clouds

We’ve all experienced it—the satisfaction, the glee, the triumph. Whether it’s a beautifully filtered Instagram or a very clever Facebook status, social media can make us feel immensely proud of ourselves. Five retweets of my sarcastic tweet about Amanda Bynes and I’m as funny as Tina Fey. Eight Instagram likes on my picture of a sunset and I feel like photographer Annie Leibovitz. But these feelings of complacency, even joy, are also corrupting. Social media’s air of substance is too often just an illusion. So many of us are not, let’s face it, in Tahrir Square fomenting a revolution. We are indulging ourselves.

Social media is of course supposed to be fun. Its ability to distract from painfully boring situations (waiting rooms, lines, Friday nights at Harvard) is a huge part of its appeal. But lately, I have begun to realize that I am conning myself when I try to believe that time spent plugged in is always time well spent. I fool myself when I think it is a necessity, rather than a luxury. Most of the time when I’m staring and scrolling, I’m not engaged in any kind of socially productive exercise. I am not “connecting” with close friends as I pretend to be. Usually, I am just massaging my ego and squandering my time. Too often when I’m active on social media, I find myself caring more about the “likes” than the people giving them.

I am not trying to underestimate the importance of social media and its ability to change the world around us. In the revolution in Egypt to overthrow Hosni Mubarak, Facebook connected and united protestors so well that one Egyptian couple named their new baby “Facebook” as a show of gratitude to the site’s positive impact. So often sites like Twitter and Reddit offer news quicker and more concisely when stories are just breaking. When the lockdown hit our campus after the Boston bombing, I was constantly checking my different feeds rather than relying on the slower CNN.

But the speed on these sites can be dangerous, especially when accuracy is a casualty (as when Reddit identified the wrong man as a suspect). We constantly crave more, refreshing pages over and over again, hoping for something new. Sometimes we are rewarded and our efforts seem validated. But more often, the obsessive clicking is a time vacuum and more important things get pushed aside. I find myself forgetting that not every post is going to change the world (or even my five-foot radius).

During finals at Harvard, studying and then complaining about studying online probably take about the same amount of time. People are always sharing (and secretly competing with each other) over how many hours they have spent in the library that day—“going crazy in Lamont!” people will post on Facebook, hoping for sympathy or just appreciation of their struggles. Bemoaning or bragging (depending on how you look at it) that we have spent “all day in the library” gives us a feeling of accomplishment and serves as an indicator that yes, we are working hard. When we do take that online break, it is “deserved” after all the effort. In reality, we are probably giving ourselves way too much credit about how intensely we have been slaving away.

We give ourselves too much credit in general—one last irritating trend of this social media immersion is the egotism. I am not talking about the overanalyzed “me, me. me” generation aspect and the proliferation of selfies and status updates congratulating ourselves. Instead, I refer to how it is now completely common for people to bring up their tweet, instagram, or whatever else in normal conversation. “Did you see my vine?” Many friends have asked (and I am sure I have been guilty of similar behavior), or, “Why didn’t you like my new prof pic?” It seems that we now expect critical reviews of each of our cyber, two-second masterpieces. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Rob Lazebnik, a writer for The Simpsons, sardonically shed light on this annoying trend when he encouraged 2013 grads who can’t find a job to “constantly monitor news sites for breaking stories and then try to be the first to tweet an edgy joke about what’s happening…This won’t land you a job or get you paid, but you can’t underestimate bragging rights at friends’ engagement parties.”

Now, obviously times have changed and there is nothing more irritating than a spiel about how “kids these days” don’t care about anything but their smartphones and the internet. But even though this complaint can feel stale, it does have merit. Admittedly, it is difficult for me to swallow, as I’m guilty of everything I have mentioned. But I’m steadily realizing the value of trying to keep myself in check when I look at the clock and realize I’ve been submerged for 40 minutes doing technically nothing. I think it’s important to remember that we should have accomplishments we can really see and touch, not just ones on a touchscreen.

Isabel H. Evans ’14, a Crimson editorial writer, is an English concentrator in Adams House.