Talk about irony. Writer and director Gary Turk’s 5-minute video featuring a spoken word poem highlighting society’s addiction to the internet, social media and mobile phones has received almost 20 million online views in just 10 days.

The video starts with the line “I have 422 friends, yet I’m lonely. I speak to all of them every day, yet none of them really know me“. It goes onto highlight all that’s wrong with today’s smartphone-dependent generation, the growing lack of (real world) social skills and our inability to enjoy the moment because we’re too busy staring down one screen or the other. Check it out below.

Last year, a short film titled “I Forgot My Phone” received over 40 million views with it’s satirical depiction of society’s obsession with their mobile phones. From a non-biased point of view, being addicted to anything is bad, why expect social media to be an exception? And it’s not like it doesn’t have it’s benefits. As per a recent study of over 300 employees by Melbourne university, moderate use of social media can encourage knowledge sharing, reduce stress and boost productivity. Social media also enables you to be better connected to your friends and family living far away. There are two sides to every coin and the benefits of social technology far outweigh the disadvantages as long as the usage doesn’t border on addiction or substitution. Physical communication shouldn’t be compromised just because we have an alternate means to interact with each other. It’s funny we came across Gary Turk’s poem today – just 3 days back we shared this picture on our Facebook page:

What’s your take on this entire topic? Do you believe social media has actually made society less social? Voice your opinion in the comments section below. Share this post with your friends and family, specially the ones who could benefit from it.



