Educating youth about the real world as opposed to the False reality of social media addiction.

Abstract

Gen Z, the kids born after 1996 or so, those kids are the first generation in history that got on social media in middle school and apart from them 90.4% social media users are millennials. Hence, the extensive use of social media is making people become a slave of the false reality created through social media which tends to mess with people’s mental health, identity formulation and their human existence. As a result of a perfect fake reality created through social media people are stuck in a loop of hyperreality losing the connection to the real world around them. The basic aim of this research is to educate and aware people about being conscious of their social media use and to regain their connection to the real world. Qualitative research was initiated first to understand the false reality created through social media and its consequences in the light of Jean Baudrillard’s theory of simulation and simulacra, Franz Kafka “Kafkaesque” terminology and the impacts of social media addiction in the light of neuroscience, psychology, scientifically, and medically. Later a qualitative research was carried out in the form of surveys of around 15- 20 questions focusing on the age group 14-25 years old to prove the stance whether social media is creating a loop of hyperreality among people or not. As a result of which came forward that social media is creating a bubble of hyperreality among people and majority of respondents wants to break free from it but are so submerged and dependent on its use that they are unable to do take a conscious action.