a couple of weeks ago I plopped down on
my couch after a long day I did what’s
customary of myself and I’m sure many
others nowadays and I scrolled through
my phone for a while
I looked through social media the usual
Facebook Twitter Instagram and when I
opened the beloved snapchat app I came
to find that I had lost one of my
highest snap streaks with one of my best
friends now for those of you who aren’t
as familiar with what a snap streak is
on snapchat there’s this little flame
emoji that comes up next to your friends
names when you’ve continued to snapchat
them consecutively every single day so
next to that flame there comes a number
and that number indicates the number of
days in which you have continued to
snapchat each other thus calling it a
snap streak now for some reason over the
years these snap streaks have grown to
define friendships and claim some strong
significance in our lives and it’s then
that I realized that I was doing just
that because we lost the snap streak my
friend deny because we had spent the day
together so that’s when I realized that
I was placing more significance on this
small number on a phone screen than on
the quality time I had with my friend so
since I was caring so much about it I
immediately sent this friend an alarming
message saying we lost our snap streak
the world is going to end right it
sometimes seems that way so here’s the
thing about snap streaks snap streaks
are a weak example of communication at
least in this sense because more often
than not we aren’t using snap streaks to
maintain quality conversation and
communication with the people in our
lives rather in our competitive society
we just want to get that highest number
and keep the streak alive we don’t want
to let that flame go out once it’s
ignited but the thing is the images that
we often send to save these streaks
really aren’t communication at all
more often than not there are blurry
photos of a wall or someone’s face with
no words or the only words that it does
say is streak savor right
is that really talking to someone now
let me show you what I’m talking about
so in this first example you see the
photo was taken inside of a car I hope
that the person who took it was not
driving while doing so but that’s a
whole nother issue for me to get into
anyway as you can see in this photo we
see the inside of a car in a building
off in the distance but there’s really
no substance here at all and all it says
is Street right now this next example
you see I’m assuming is from in a
classroom you can see a whiteboard and a
table but again there’s no words at all
and finally my personal favorite the
classic four headshot with the word
streak as the caption I think this one
speaks for itself
so the thing is we use these streaks as
a way to communicate but we’re really
not communicating at all we’re just
focusing on that number and saving that
streak now I can’t say that I’m not
guilty of doing the exact same thing
right I’m up to the challenge of having
the highest streak on campus but the
thing is it’s when I see these weak
examples of communication that I truly
believe that social media has taken over
our lives
it has convinced us that we must stay
connected at all times so our lives are
constantly being documented we’re
focusing so much on taking the picture
of what’s happening and recording the
video rather than just enjoying it and
when we do so we then develop this
strong desire for instant gratification
our attention spans are just shrinking
because everything happens so quickly at
the push of a button
now with these posts we also create
these illusions that everything in our
lives is just sunshine and rainbows
right because on social media the whole
story is not there you can’t see the
girl who’s upset about the great she got
on her tests all you see is her smiling
with her friends you don’t see the boy
who feels like he can’t be himself with
his family all you see is their holiday
photo and I’m not saying we should be
sharing these incredible memory
that’s amazing I’m glad we’re sharing
them I merely want to point out the
feelings that those posts can often
create because you see we often get
stuck in this trap this trap of
comparing our lives to everyone else’s
and when I start to do that I’m
scrolling through Facebook seeing what
everyone else is up to and then I start
to feel more isolated more excluded and
as if my life is not as wonderful as
everyone else’s now on the flip side
marketing on a marketing standpoint
social media rocks right we can reach so
many people within seconds at our
fingertips and that’s amazing when I had
my realization about social media when I
lost the streak with my friend I wanted
to get rid of all of the apps on my
phone I wanted to delete everything and
test myself to truly unplug and cleanse
from these things that I now realize
we’re becoming so toxic in my life and
just as I was about to excommunicate
myself I realized that I cannot do that
I cannot say goodbye to social media you
see I’m a public relations major
potentially pursuing a career in social
media specifically and as I’m doing so
I’m getting so much wonderful practice
doing just that right here on campus as
I run the marketing for various student
orgs which I love to do it is amazing
but just take a look at my Twitter
accounts it is insane the number of
notifications that come through my phone
in a day
Instagram has even told me you cannot
add another account you have too many so
here’s the thing social media has not
only taken over my personal life but
also my professional it is my job but
the thing is I’m not trying to say down
with social media by any means because
social media is amazing and it’s here to
stay it’s not going anywhere and I’m
glad it’s not I’m just saying that
perhaps we need to grow to be more
mindful about how we use social media so
maybe that looks like actually
taking a step back and asking yourself
is this something I need to post do I
need to share this with everyone and
maybe that’s a yes and you press send
and that’s amazing I am happy for you
but maybe that’s a no and you decide to
delete that post and that’s great too or
perhaps this mindfulness looks like
using social media but using it in a way
to build a more positive environment
rather than a hostile one or we use it
to build other people up rather than
tearing them down now before I finish
I’d like to tell you a quick story about
these two guys that you see on the
screen with me it’s a story about a time
that I put my phone down and what
happened so I was in a 12 passenger van
with 10 others traveling to Northern
California on a service trip we weren’t
very far into our 30 hour road trip when
we took a wrong turn but no worries we
thought our GPS quickly rerouted us onto
this gravel road that appeared to take
us right back onto the interstate
now that grab will quickly turn to dirt
which quickly turned to mud and then we
grew to be a little bit more worried
about our fate on this road as we looked
off in the distance we saw some
headlights on the same road as us so we
thought well if that car’s fine then
we’ll probably be fine too and just kept
moving forward now as we approached that
other car we came to realize that they
were quite the opposite of fine in fact
they were stuck in the mud and within
minutes so were we so then our group of
10 all got out of the van barefoot and
attempted to push our van out of the mud
and onto the pavement which was just a
mere 50 feet away and after a long while
of trying different tactics and trying
to get our van set free we decided she
just wasn’t going anywhere
so then after getting everyone back in
the van cleaning their feet making sure
everyone was comfortable my brain went
to the people in that car stuck beside
us now some of the people on my trip
told me they don’t think that they were
speaking any English I said that’s okay
and went and approached them anyway so I
go over to the car and these two faces
looked up at me
and they just looked shocked scared and
uncomfortable and one of them stumbled
through his words to tell me that they
don’t speak any English I smiled and
said okay I speak a little bit of
Spanish and then they got so excited and
just started talking to me and that’s
when I found out that these two men had
been stuck there for over two hours
before we got to them you see they were
not only physically stuck in the mud but
they were stuck because they could not
communicate in order to get help at this
point we had already called for a tow
truck so we were kind of just playing
the waiting game but this is when the
truly amazing thing happened instead of
looking at my phone trying to reach
someone from home or scrolling through
social media to pass the time I just sat
and talked with them for about the hour
so that we waited it was incredible
they told me about their home I told
them about mine I told them about my
family they told me about theirs they
asked me about being a student I told
them about my study abroad experience we
just talked about life we even broke
into song singing be be Evita by Marc
Anthony which is one of my favorites it
was amazing and then just as the tow
truck was arriving we actually locked
hands and prayed together which was just
incredible now if I had chose to stare
at a phone screen like I so often do
that night I wouldn’t have had the
chance to meet my new friends Ernesto
and Rafael this same thing rang true
throughout the rest of my service trips
you see in our 30 hour drive to
California and our 30 hour drive back to
Iowa our group of 10 groups so close to
one another because more often than not
we chose to close our phones and open
our minds and our hearts to having real
conversation together and the same thing
happened throughout our week of service
with all the other volunteers and
workers and students we weren’t staring
at our phones instead we looked up at
each other and talked
and made connections you see it’s
through that undivided attention that I
think we grow to be more mindful about
our media usage in general so maybe the
thought behind a snap streak in itself
is not bad having constant communication
with the people in our lives that’s
amazing right I just think the intent
behind it gets lost so maybe we don’t
save our snap streaks but we start a new
kind of streak maybe we start a life
streak a life streak where you you vowed
to have a real conversation with someone
every day anyone just talk to them or
maybe you start a life streak where you
you call your mom or whoever you want to
call once a week and you have a real
conversation maybe you start a live
street where you just start going up to
people and you say how are you doing
today and you just talk to them let’s
start live streaks of real face time
I mean face-to-face interaction because
I think that through that real face time
we can begin to build better
relationships and give the world our
love rather than just our like thank you [Applause]
my couch after a long day I did what’s
customary of myself and I’m sure many
others nowadays and I scrolled through
my phone for a while
I looked through social media the usual
Facebook Twitter Instagram and when I
opened the beloved snapchat app I came
to find that I had lost one of my
highest snap streaks with one of my best
friends now for those of you who aren’t
as familiar with what a snap streak is
on snapchat there’s this little flame
emoji that comes up next to your friends
names when you’ve continued to snapchat
them consecutively every single day so
next to that flame there comes a number
and that number indicates the number of
days in which you have continued to
snapchat each other thus calling it a
snap streak now for some reason over the
years these snap streaks have grown to
define friendships and claim some strong
significance in our lives and it’s then
that I realized that I was doing just
that because we lost the snap streak my
friend deny because we had spent the day
together so that’s when I realized that
I was placing more significance on this
small number on a phone screen than on
the quality time I had with my friend so
since I was caring so much about it I
immediately sent this friend an alarming
message saying we lost our snap streak
the world is going to end right it
sometimes seems that way so here’s the
thing about snap streaks snap streaks
are a weak example of communication at
least in this sense because more often
than not we aren’t using snap streaks to
maintain quality conversation and
communication with the people in our
lives rather in our competitive society
we just want to get that highest number
and keep the streak alive we don’t want
to let that flame go out once it’s
ignited but the thing is the images that
we often send to save these streaks
really aren’t communication at all
more often than not there are blurry
photos of a wall or someone’s face with
no words or the only words that it does
say is streak savor right
is that really talking to someone now
let me show you what I’m talking about
so in this first example you see the
photo was taken inside of a car I hope
that the person who took it was not
driving while doing so but that’s a
whole nother issue for me to get into
anyway as you can see in this photo we
see the inside of a car in a building
off in the distance but there’s really
no substance here at all and all it says
is Street right now this next example
you see I’m assuming is from in a
classroom you can see a whiteboard and a
table but again there’s no words at all
and finally my personal favorite the
classic four headshot with the word
streak as the caption I think this one
speaks for itself
so the thing is we use these streaks as
a way to communicate but we’re really
not communicating at all we’re just
focusing on that number and saving that
streak now I can’t say that I’m not
guilty of doing the exact same thing
right I’m up to the challenge of having
the highest streak on campus but the
thing is it’s when I see these weak
examples of communication that I truly
believe that social media has taken over
our lives
it has convinced us that we must stay
connected at all times so our lives are
constantly being documented we’re
focusing so much on taking the picture
of what’s happening and recording the
video rather than just enjoying it and
when we do so we then develop this
strong desire for instant gratification
our attention spans are just shrinking
because everything happens so quickly at
the push of a button
now with these posts we also create
these illusions that everything in our
lives is just sunshine and rainbows
right because on social media the whole
story is not there you can’t see the
girl who’s upset about the great she got
on her tests all you see is her smiling
with her friends you don’t see the boy
who feels like he can’t be himself with
his family all you see is their holiday
photo and I’m not saying we should be
sharing these incredible memory
that’s amazing I’m glad we’re sharing
them I merely want to point out the
feelings that those posts can often
create because you see we often get
stuck in this trap this trap of
comparing our lives to everyone else’s
and when I start to do that I’m
scrolling through Facebook seeing what
everyone else is up to and then I start
to feel more isolated more excluded and
as if my life is not as wonderful as
everyone else’s now on the flip side
marketing on a marketing standpoint
social media rocks right we can reach so
many people within seconds at our
fingertips and that’s amazing when I had
my realization about social media when I
lost the streak with my friend I wanted
to get rid of all of the apps on my
phone I wanted to delete everything and
test myself to truly unplug and cleanse
from these things that I now realize
we’re becoming so toxic in my life and
just as I was about to excommunicate
myself I realized that I cannot do that
I cannot say goodbye to social media you
see I’m a public relations major
potentially pursuing a career in social
media specifically and as I’m doing so
I’m getting so much wonderful practice
doing just that right here on campus as
I run the marketing for various student
orgs which I love to do it is amazing
but just take a look at my Twitter
accounts it is insane the number of
notifications that come through my phone
in a day
Instagram has even told me you cannot
add another account you have too many so
here’s the thing social media has not
only taken over my personal life but
also my professional it is my job but
the thing is I’m not trying to say down
with social media by any means because
social media is amazing and it’s here to
stay it’s not going anywhere and I’m
glad it’s not I’m just saying that
perhaps we need to grow to be more
mindful about how we use social media so
maybe that looks like actually
taking a step back and asking yourself
is this something I need to post do I
need to share this with everyone and
maybe that’s a yes and you press send
and that’s amazing I am happy for you
but maybe that’s a no and you decide to
delete that post and that’s great too or
perhaps this mindfulness looks like
using social media but using it in a way
to build a more positive environment
rather than a hostile one or we use it
to build other people up rather than
tearing them down now before I finish
I’d like to tell you a quick story about
these two guys that you see on the
screen with me it’s a story about a time
that I put my phone down and what
happened so I was in a 12 passenger van
with 10 others traveling to Northern
California on a service trip we weren’t
very far into our 30 hour road trip when
we took a wrong turn but no worries we
thought our GPS quickly rerouted us onto
this gravel road that appeared to take
us right back onto the interstate
now that grab will quickly turn to dirt
which quickly turned to mud and then we
grew to be a little bit more worried
about our fate on this road as we looked
off in the distance we saw some
headlights on the same road as us so we
thought well if that car’s fine then
we’ll probably be fine too and just kept
moving forward now as we approached that
other car we came to realize that they
were quite the opposite of fine in fact
they were stuck in the mud and within
minutes so were we so then our group of
10 all got out of the van barefoot and
attempted to push our van out of the mud
and onto the pavement which was just a
mere 50 feet away and after a long while
of trying different tactics and trying
to get our van set free we decided she
just wasn’t going anywhere
so then after getting everyone back in
the van cleaning their feet making sure
everyone was comfortable my brain went
to the people in that car stuck beside
us now some of the people on my trip
told me they don’t think that they were
speaking any English I said that’s okay
and went and approached them anyway so I
go over to the car and these two faces
looked up at me
and they just looked shocked scared and
uncomfortable and one of them stumbled
through his words to tell me that they
don’t speak any English I smiled and
said okay I speak a little bit of
Spanish and then they got so excited and
just started talking to me and that’s
when I found out that these two men had
been stuck there for over two hours
before we got to them you see they were
not only physically stuck in the mud but
they were stuck because they could not
communicate in order to get help at this
point we had already called for a tow
truck so we were kind of just playing
the waiting game but this is when the
truly amazing thing happened instead of
looking at my phone trying to reach
someone from home or scrolling through
social media to pass the time I just sat
and talked with them for about the hour
so that we waited it was incredible
they told me about their home I told
them about mine I told them about my
family they told me about theirs they
asked me about being a student I told
them about my study abroad experience we
just talked about life we even broke
into song singing be be Evita by Marc
Anthony which is one of my favorites it
was amazing and then just as the tow
truck was arriving we actually locked
hands and prayed together which was just
incredible now if I had chose to stare
at a phone screen like I so often do
that night I wouldn’t have had the
chance to meet my new friends Ernesto
and Rafael this same thing rang true
throughout the rest of my service trips
you see in our 30 hour drive to
California and our 30 hour drive back to
Iowa our group of 10 groups so close to
one another because more often than not
we chose to close our phones and open
our minds and our hearts to having real
conversation together and the same thing
happened throughout our week of service
with all the other volunteers and
workers and students we weren’t staring
at our phones instead we looked up at
each other and talked
and made connections you see it’s
through that undivided attention that I
think we grow to be more mindful about
our media usage in general so maybe the
thought behind a snap streak in itself
is not bad having constant communication
with the people in our lives that’s
amazing right I just think the intent
behind it gets lost so maybe we don’t
save our snap streaks but we start a new
kind of streak maybe we start a life
streak a life streak where you you vowed
to have a real conversation with someone
every day anyone just talk to them or
maybe you start a life streak where you
you call your mom or whoever you want to
call once a week and you have a real
conversation maybe you start a live
street where you just start going up to
people and you say how are you doing
today and you just talk to them let’s
start live streaks of real face time
I mean face-to-face interaction because
I think that through that real face time
we can begin to build better
relationships and give the world our
love rather than just our like thank you [Applause]
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