Alexandra Samuel wrote in interesting approach to the new “unplugging” methods that seems to be sweeping the nation. People are supposed to stay off of the internet and from their electronic devices for certain time periods in order to feel better about themselves. However, in Samuel’s eyes this is not the best of approaches. She states in her piece, “[g]oing offline is no longer a realistic option” (2). I almost completely agree with her. I am still hesitant to fully believe her in the thinking that it is actually no longer a realistic option. In my opinion, since there are still people out there living without all of this, there are still ways for us to live that way as well. We just have to actually care enough to do so. She goes on to mention that people need to stop having a FOMO and just accept that “you can’t be everywhere and do everything” (3). Similarily, in Jean M. Twenge’s piece, “social media…exacerbate[s] the age-old teen concern about being left out” (11). Both author here shed light on the fact that things happen that everyone will want to be at. However, there is the reality that you legitimately can not physically be in multiple places at once, thus hopefully making life easier to balance when you just focus on what is happening presently with where you are right now. This is where I really do agree with Samuel because she sheds some light on this topic and makes a realistic statement on how we need to deal with our social lives. I also like how in her piece she on multiple occasions states that we need to just “plug in” to whatever we are working on whether it be online or offline with the same amount of drive. Overall, her piece was interesting, not extremely statistically based or factually based, however, for the purpose of her paper, she did give some appropriate solutions for some of the problems we have today.
Jessy Shore
Be the change you want to see in the world
