5: Does Social Media Overpower Human Connection?

In a video from Julian West, society is portrayed as mindless beings obsessed with their phones.  The video follows someone who is lost in the world being the only one not completely immersed in his phone.  He wanders around watching terrible things happening that other people are either oblivious to or are filming for social media.  He is lost in a sea of people surrounded by phone screens.

Everyone else is seen moving around regardless of what is occurring around them, whether they are falling down an uncovered manhole or bumping into other people.  A man being beaten is not helped, but rather the surrounding group films what is happening to later be posted online.  A family sitting around a table eating completely ignores each other due to their phones.  A girl takes pictures of herself while there is a burning building behind her.  A woman is aggressively catcalled, but no one intervenes because they are all fully distracted by their phones.  Even the person that the video follows notices the situation and thinks about helping, but still does not.  A girl is portrayed as sad before taking a picture, but smiles for the camera to give social media a facade of positivity and beauty.  People are seen in jail cells shaped like smart phones.  Everyone worships a woman filled with botox.  Many other similar portrayals continue through the video to emphasize different aspects of the video's overall suggestion.

As the man wanders, he is unable to get anyone's attention away from their phone screens despite his best efforts.  He later sees a woman being filmed dancing without her phone and having fun.  The rest of the crowd films her and posts the dancing online calling it a fail for being bad dancing.  Everyone laughs at her and the video until she is on the ledge of a building's roof.  Rather than trying to stop her, the entire crowd films her jumping.  When the crowd clears, the man is seen standing there with a tear falling from his eye.  The video ends with everyone walking off of a cliff looking down at their phones.

I would like to consider myself like the self-aware man, but that would be the easy way out.  There are definitely instances that I have acted as the societal norm, and everyone has those moments.  The biggest take away from this video is that everyone needs to be mindful of their use of electronics.  Social media is a great invention, but it can be overused if people are not cautious.  Many of the situations in the video can be seen as extreme examples of modern day society.  If we are not careful, this could become reality rather than occasional circumstances.