COLUMN: Think Again – Real life and social media are two different things

The more time you spend on social media, the angrier everyone seems. No matter which platform you use, people appear to be in a state of perpetual outrage.

Whether it’s personal attacks made against politicians, criticisms of long-established businesses, or drive-by smears against churches, there’s no shortage of negativity online. If this truly reflected how most people felt about those around them, it would be a depressing state of affairs indeed.

Perhaps this is why people who spend most of their time on social media are more likely to be depressed than those who don’t.

Fortunately, the real world is quite different from social media. I was reminded of this fact when hanging out at Summer in the City this past weekend.

Summer in the City is a huge annual event that attracts people from across Manitoba to downtown Steinbach. Not only are there plenty of food trucks, many interesting vendor booths, lots of activities for children, and some fantastic performances, but this festival is a great opportunity to meet new people and reconnect with old friends that you haven’t seen for a long time.

I certainly made the most of this weekend and one thing that stood out to me was that interacting with people in-person is much more substantive and genuine than online interactions. That’s because an in-person conversation is quite different from making an anonymous post on social media. Most people would never make the same insults to someone in-person that they put on Reddit or X.

Incidentally, this is true regardless of one’s political affiliation. There are people of all political persuasions who have allowed social media to suck them into a web of negativity. If we aren’t careful, we start to think that the negative world on social media is reflective of the real world when it truly isn’t, at least not most of the time.

Unsurprisingly, the toxicity of many online interactions has led some politicians to suggest that it might be time to restrict social media access or perhaps even ban it entirely, at least for young people.

However, that would be an unfortunate overreaction. That’s because there are many valuable uses for social media. Not only do I use it to stay in touch with people who live in other communities, I find it to be a helpful way to get a pulse on what issues people care about most. For example, if I’m seeing a lot of people complain about gas prices on social media, then I know that it’s probably not a good idea to advocate for policies that would raise these prices even more.

In addition, social media is also used to convey positive news. Earlier in this column, I mentioned Summer in the City. Well, there was no shortage of posts about how much people enjoyed attending this festival and they often included pictures highlighting their favourite moments. When you see posts like these, you get a quick snapshot of what things people appreciated most about this festival.

As for young people accessing social media, I’ve acknowledged before that social media is often more negative than positive for children. Nevertheless, I continue to have reservations about either the federal or provincial governments legislating a ban on children accessing social media. That’s because I have yet to see a proposal that doesn’t contain glaring loopholes or lead to major privacy concerns.

In any case, it’s important to remember that real life and social media are two different things. While it’s appropriate to use social media in moderation, we must never allow it to become the primary way that we see the world.

Michael Zwaagstra is a teacher and deputy mayor of Steinbach. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.