Social Media continues to consume human beings.
This is perhaps akin to the 21st century Urban Lemmings Syndrome, which according to the Urban Dictionary definition is ‘a psychological quasi-condition in which the afflicted person becomes subject to the whims of a portion of popular culture, and bends his/her entire persona to conform to the norms dictated by the media moguls in charge of said trend’.
Do we believe all the hype and dare I say propaganda? I often ask myself what would one of the great leaders in modern history have made of Facebook, Twitter and social media in their battle to win a World War - Are we more disconnected or connected?
Is a connected world leading to a rise in Lemmings (or Social Networking Syndrome), rendering a new generation incapable of basic communication skills?
Having studied biology and biochemistry, I have always been immersed in human behaviour and intelligence linked to the anatomy of the body, which has ultimately adapted over time and evolution to make man one of the most successful species on the planet.
One of the reasons that man is so successful is due to our ability to communicate first visually through images and pictures, and thereafter development of visual gestures, signs and language to converse with others so that they understand the comprehension of those actions and communications.
However, having observed the next generation there appears to be perhaps a display of regressive behaviour to the Neolithic man period whereby the only communication is via a device instead of cave paintings through the Facebook timeline. And when you put these individuals into a real world environment, they appear ill at ease and uncomfortable communicating without the crux of having their device in front of them – Is this where we see the disconnection?
There is certainly a growing body of evidence that this social disconnection exists and we don’t have to look that far back in time. We can all remise about stories of people’s addiction to email and mobile phones, as well as Blackberry thumb condition trying to control the tracker ball.
Indeed many physiologists are already treating patients for social disconnection trauma and reorientation thereof back into the real world that we live in, so we could be witnessing the start of a backlash of anti-social media consumerism. Only time we tell, but no doubt we shall hear of it first on Twitter.
