Social Media: A Detriment
Mainstream Social Media has advanced stupendously swiftly over the past decade, going from being something only alternative teenagers and older adults desperately clinging to their youth would use, to something that even the last two Presidents of the United States have used to communicate to the world. No longer is social media about what you did at school that day, what your favourite video game of the summer holidays was or posting pictures of you with your new hairstyle. Now the internet has been repurposed as a forefront of political warfare and untamed vitriol.
One of the most common phrases now, recently brought back into popularity, is that of the “Echo Chamber.” A phenomenon where someone surrounds themselves with people and brands that support their own ideology and beliefs. When this happens, the person in question is cut off from experiencing other viewpoints and arguments, and are passively convinced that they are correct and that everyone agrees with them. This in itself causes a stagnation in personal development.
In more recent years, the Echo Chamber has been reinforced by the Left side of the political spectrum via MSM companies enforcing their own political standpoint onto users. This is usually done by flagging anything that makes their own beliefs and arguments seem incorrect/false. Even more recently, coming up to the most recent election (November 2020), arguments and debatable topics posted, or even actual scandals concerning those of a more left-wing ideology, have been censored and tagged with a label saying “This is false or incorrect” or just completely being deleted with the simple tag of “This tweet was deleted due to the spreading of false information.” Whether the information being shown is correct or not, this is still a violation of free speech on the internet. Even when the POTUS himself mentioned bringing in the National Guard in order to protect civilians and businesses from the rapidly-intensifying and violent protests, his tweets were flagged as “inciting violence.” (image1) Yet on the flip side, other blue-check-marked names (thus indicating they have a large following and have been tagged by twitter as an “Influencer”) have incited violence and vandalism on a large scale and have not been censored at all. (image 2.) Whether you agree or not with either side, it does not matter. Free speech should be protected at all costs, no matter who is saying it.
Away from the political side of this subject, Social media in itself has created a generation of people who are constantly concerned with the approval of others. Sources mentioned in an article (1) link narcissism to heavy social media usage, with “selfies” having been a trend that has blended into modern culture. The idea that other people care about every singular thing that someone does in a day has become more and more popular, with “food pictures” being taken in restaurants and cafes becoming another trend that has become part of modern culture. However, whilst posting a picture of yourself and receiving lots of praise can be ego-boosting and helping self-images, it can also be a detriment with suicides occurring due to online-bullying and images being shared and edited without consent.
Social Media has allowed people to provide details with every opinion and act they perform (as I mentioned previously) that stalking and tracking down people’s locations has become easier and easier. A case comes to mind of a Japanese man stalking a pop star by working out her location from the reflection in her pupils (2). An article from Forbes (3) mentions this case as well as many others, such as a 21 year old Californian man being arrested for breaking into a 13 year old girl’s house after deducing her location from her Instagram.
Even in non-malicious cases, stalking someone’s social media has become more and more accepted to the point where memes are made about it. Remember that everything you post on the internet with your name or face can be found by anyone. I do not doubt that even this article might be mentioned in my future.
So do I think that Social Media is stupid? No, definitely not. There are benefits and detriments to all things in life. But I do definitely think that Social Media becoming a part of every person’s life at all times is a very dangerous thing with many negative outcomes. In the end, however, I advocate freedom of speech, so do whatever you wish to do (as long as it isn’t illegal.)
Stay safe and be smart.
