Hey everyone,
Been a while since I wrote a post on here. This time I thought to write on the topic of social media.
Now let me first get this out of the way, I have nothing against social media. Social media is a tool, the meaning to that tool is given through how it is used. My main concern lies with the usage and the meaning it’s users (not all though) maybe giving it.
To start of, what sparked my interest in writing a quick post about this is thanks to the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HffWFd_6bJ0
In the video the main worrying point discussed for me was the fact that social media can act a lot like drugs or alcohol, giving instant gratification with the chance of becoming addictive.
This is not false, social media definitely has that gratification feeling to it that generally is similar to say alcohol. When you are drunk, you are taken on a “ride” thanks to the release of dopamine in your brain. Social media does the same. But unlike alcohol which is less likely to be consumed 24×7 by everyone, social media can affect many for a lot of their time during the day, and it can even be 24×7.
Let’s look at another video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QWoP6jJG3k
The main point in this video is talking about the importance of “fame” to young kids these days who use social media. Because let’s be honest here, we all like having our work be acknowledged. Knowing that someone out there acknowledged our work is definitely going to give us some gratification. But as the video also discusses, there is also the opportunity to have your work be slandered online, or worse, you could be cyber bullied.
There is also the interesting point of day dreaming and imagination in that video. According to the video, teens don’t tend to drift off as much as they would have in the days without social media or any of the technology we have today. I agree that it helps train the mind to be more empathetic, but it also keeps the imagination healthy and alive. Why else do we see kids losing their imagination as they grow up? This would be one of those reasons. They are too busy trying to obtain “fame”/instant gratification online for causes that may mean nothing in the long run.
Social media as I said before is a tool. The meaning is given to that tool through its usage. People who use social media to help share causes they care about to BETTER THE WORLD, or help share useful and practical knowledge, in my opinion you are doing it RIGHT.
To those that use it in the hopes of being famous, thinking only about the likes, use it as a means to bully others or drown out MEANINGFUL content with junk posts, you are doing it WRONG.
Social media definitely has distorted us, and by effect our society to some extent. I can understand more and more now why the Millennial generation is called the Me generation. By the way, I’m from the Millennial generation.
Another good point brought up in the second video is the change in values being taught in shows these days. I don’t necessarily agree or disagree to the values being taught by the older TV shows, but one thing is abundantly clear that media has a HUGE effect on our minds. This also proves that media is just another means of controlling the populace through the messages shows send out nowdays.
Personally I’m glad I didn’t have a cell phone until I was in my 20’s. Nor did I have any social media accounts despite the pros I would hear about it from my friends at times. It kept me away from all the social media craze, it gave me moments to myself to be imaginative, creative and it also what helped me develop my interest in writing and some other creative hobbies. Had I been part of that social media craze from a much younger age, I’m sure I would be a very different person today.
To end this post, I have another video. This one is rather comedic, but also true to some extent and very well animated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZfvogC6G3k
~ Monty
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Check out my other blog here: http://lightexistenceblog.wordpress.com/
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