It’s a peculiar time in history to be a human, so far as the intersection of technology and connection are involved. Never has it been easier to find and keep track of friends and family, objectively all over the world, in real time. But now that the connections are available, they can seem weaker, and the distraction of constant connection also plays a role in certain types of frustration.
If you want to figure out how to have the proper balance between digital and physical contact with those closest to you, consider what defines family time, how social media related depression works, how to self-populate memories, where strong and weak connections come into play, and how much energy you should spend bringing older generations into the new flow of things.
What Defines Family Time
Especially with the prevalence of mobile phones, how do you define family time in your household? Without some sort of rules regarding cell phone and gadget use, things can and do get out of hand quickly. Parents and children stop paying attention to each other, even if they’re in the same room, which leads to long-term breakdowns in communication if the behavior goes on unchecked.
Social Media Related Depression
People who spend too much time online in social media frameworks can also run into a situation where they become depressed because it seems like everyone else has a better life than they do. This is all a construct of presentation – it’s not reality! But, if you reach an improper balance of your online and in-person relationships, you may end up assuming that you have it worse off than the average person that you see posting things in their friends’ circles.
Self-Populating Memories
One huge positive when it comes to friends and family connections so far as technology goes is the ability to self-populate photo albums for instance. By using the Facebook ‘Moments’ app, you can spend more time actually interacting with your family, as opposed to everyone duplicating efforts to make sure that everybody has the individual photos of an event that they want.
Figuring Out Strong and Weak Connections
There are different types of connections when it comes to mobile devices and digital pathways, and it’s important to distinguish between them. The two main categories are strong and weak, and the more you understand the difference between the two, the more likely you’ll find the right balance between them with respect to your other relationships as well.
Bringing In Older Generations
Older generations of people haven’t quite adopted new social technology as much as new generations have. Depending on your age and social media use, you may want to make sure that you take the time to show older people how it all works. Once your parents and grandparents understand the overall concept, it can make many different types of communication much easier.