Comment on ambiguity of belonging

Alternativer Bildtext:

you can message or facetime. Simply put, there is always a direct access to social networks. In addition to that our daily life kind of changed. Students like me are no longer going to school instead they're taking online classes. Adults have switched to home office as much as possible. So generally speaking, many people are having more direct contact to social networks than to family and friends. It is known that humans are creatures of habit which leads them to getting used to communicating via social platforms rather than in real life. We are starting to believe that social networks create a sense of belonging and no longer your friends. Although you cannot compare them. As I see it, you have stronger social ties with your family and friends than with social networks. Personally, I think that family and friends are providing the sense of belonging and social networks are just the devices enabling to maintain these relationships. If you communicate with your friends via social platforms your friends will still provide your sense of belonging because you interact with your friend and not with the platform. The conclusion I draw is as follows: I can understand that social networks feel as if they create a sense of belonging because there is a huge community of people on each platform and they help you to keep in touch with your friends but it's just another way of communicating with your friends and they are still the ones who provide your sense of belonging. During your teenage life and adolescence, you may still have to figure out who provides it for you. Especially in such times it is hard because people believe to find it in social networks because they try to act and dress like the community on the different networks or like their role model. But as I see it this is a false sense of belonging because you should be yourself and focus on maintaining important relationships in real life as soon as this is possible again. As far as I'm concerned, society shouldn't neglect friends and family should be aware that they won't get used to communicating rather via social networks than in real life. That's why family and friends still provide the sense of belonging for me.