As with most technical innovations throughout time, technology is always a double-edged sword. I would argue that the sole purpose is to disrupt the status quo. Most of the times these leaps forwards are done for efficiency purposes, giving us an overall better way to live. Social media does do this very well, but I think what we often replace with social media is extremely detrimental to our society—human connection.
There's a reason why we as a society deem long term solitary confinement as inhumane. Us as a species are meant to be social. There are very little people who I know in my age group who are not on anti-depression meds. In my opinion, one of the biggest contributors to that is our lack of human connection. I remember during high school, specifically my junior and senior year, Lacy and I would have a routine where we would call one another right around 10:00 at night and talk for thirty minutes to an hour. It was the exact same way with my first ex-girlfriend, Brenda. These days I can almost guarantee if I called one of my friends right this second, it would go to their voicemail and I would immediately get a text asking, "what's up?"
That's the first layer. Now, on top of that, we can add social media. I often use this example: people utilize it in such a way where everyone is trying to advertise:
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Look how exciting my life is! Look at my new car! My kid is smarter than yours!"
Don't get me wrong, I've quite frequently used my social media accounts the same way. However, more often than not, we aren't getting the full story. We don't see the part where they maxed out their credit cards to go on that dream vacation. We don't know that picture-perfect couple is actually struggling with their marriage. People only show us what they want us to see. And constantly seeing our "friends" out there with their fabulous lives while we may be struggling with our own lives makes us feel inferior. And, not only that, now we feel the urge to compete which in turn makes us feel even worse when we don't get as many "likes" as our peers.
The Center for Disease Control projects that by the year 2050, depression will affect 45.8% of the adult population. Do I think that technology is the sole contributor to this epidemic? Of course not. But I think technology does it no favors either. I also think that as remote work becomes more and more prevalent in our workforce it's going to do even more escalate the epidemic. After all, there is a huge difference between texting someone "Lol" and actually physically laughing.