Phones and Social Media

In one of my recent internet walks I stumbled on an interesting forum post. In there someone posed the following thought experiment:

If you somehow had the power to go back to the mid 2000s and permanently prevent one from being invented, which would you choose? A world with social media but no smart phones, or a world with smart phones but without social media?

When I read it, my first thought was social media, easily. But then I started to think about it. Sure, social media right now is probably a net negative for the world but I’m wondering what social media would look like if it was confined within desktop computers and laptops.

There would be no quick check to Twitter while you’re in the bathroom, no picture at your food while you’re eating, no constant updates about what you’re up to throughout your day. If you wanted to share something with the world you’d have to sit down and do it on your computer.

It would also be a lot harder to go viral because people aren’t living their lives in front of their computer since they have lives they need to live. Not having internet access with you all the time would probably make for a better society.

Curious to know what you think about it though. If you have thoughts, do let me know.