We live in the Golden Age of Social Media. Be it a terrible string of 140 characters, an unnecessary poll or a captionless selfie from a bad angle, the students of Ames High are constantly engaged in different social platforms. However, it is ironic that being on social media is often noted as being anti-social. How social is you social media use?

Despite the fact most people cannot actually go without electricity, we have all experienced or endured through a lecture from an adult or a teen “who was born in the wrong time period” about how our generation is ruined by technology. Teens are drawn to social media due to its convenience and simplicity. Social Media makes it so easy to communicate with one another and to forcefully update all your friends and relatives about you life. With 1000s, of social medias, it is not hard to find the social media that screams “Me!”

I personally think that social media is underrated, especially  the social part of it. As they are glued to their phones, teens are usually on iMessage, or Snapchat. When asked “Do you have any games on your phone” most teens would reply “not anymore.” Teens are not wasting their time playing 6 hours of Plants vs Zombies, they are talking to their friends or scrolling through Twitter. I don’t believe that talking with someone over Facebook message should be valued any less then a face to face conversation. If you talk to someone a lot over iMessage, why does it matter if you don’t spend every minute when you meet in person talking?

Despite the misconception that Social Medias are ruining relationships, I believe that they are improving them. Being able to imessage someone right at that moment that something is happening, is much more essential and informative then telling them the story the next day. Why is it looked down upon to use your phone when you are out, lets say with friends. If they are your close friends, you have probably already updated them on every aspect of your life, why does it matter if you don’t talk for a few minutes?

Social Media will never replace face to face conversation and I am aware of that. However, Social Media I believe is not only very social, but should be used to addition to face to face conversations.