This brilliant short film slating ‘antisocial’ media has taken over the internet after going viral with nearly 20 million views in just over a week.
The clip was created by London writer and director Gary Turk, who posted his film on YouTube, describing it as ‘a lesson taught to us through a love story.’
He says social media is actually making us less sociable and more isolated from the outside world.
In the film, which was posted online this week, Gary said: I have 422 friends yet I’m lonely. I speak to all of them every day yet none of them really know me.
The problem I have sits in the spaces between looking into their eyes, or at a name on a screen.
I took a step back and opened my eyes that this media we call social, is anything but, when we open our computers and it’s our doors we shut.
Studies claim Facebook and other social media cause people to become more lonely and experience reduced life-satisfaction.
University of Michigan psychologist Ethan Kross conducted an experiment where 82 participants filled in surveys each day about their Facebook usage.
The study reported: The more they used Facebook over two weeks, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time.
Gary finishes his short film by saying: So when you’re in public and you start to feel alone. Put your hands behind your head step away from the phone.
You don’t need to stare at your menu or at your contact list, just talk to one another, learn to co-exist.
Don’t waste your life getting caught in the net as when the end comes nothing’s worse than regret.
Look up from your phone – shut off your display, stop watching this video, live life the real way.