Social Media is for Idiots
It feels contradictory to critique social media as I sit here using Medium; a writing platform that allows you to promote and share stories on an array of social media sites. Many of these sites I have in tabs that are open in front of me right now including: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, each seem to offer a different form of binge-laden content. But alas, that is the nature of social media today; knowing we can often contradict ourselves but doing so anyway without any serious repercussions. An example of this I hear you say? How about Donald Trump tweeting about the seriousness of Kim Jong Un’s missile tests, all whilst antagonising him with terms like ‘Little Rocket Man’ on Twitter, and thus pushing the world ever closer to nuclear war? So, without further ado, let’s dive into the world of social media and some of its faults.
Procrastination
I’m sure you’ve all been subjected to a know-it-all or somebody you think should be minding their own business and not giving you quips such as: “Stop spending too much time on your phone,” or “You’re never off Facebook.” The list goes on and on, but have you ever stopped to think of just how long you actually spend on social media? Data from Social Media Today has calculated it for you. They found that if you use all of the major platforms such as: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat, then you are going to spend an enormous five years and four months of your life posting, tweeting, streaming and snapping. Just think of all the other things you could do with your time… like learning a new language! According to the website The Linguist, it would take roughly 48 days to learn a new language fluently if you spent 10 hours a day practising.
Breeding stupidity
Nothing promotes or breeds stupidity better than social media. Now I’m not saying stupidity is necessarily negative. I’ve watched enough YouTube videos titled: ‘try not to laugh” or “Vines that keep me alive” to appreciate that most are very amusing. Some videos on YouTube make people millions of dollars depending on how many advertisements and views they receive. As you may be aware though, this can all turn sour very quickly if the urge to create money takes it too far. This recently happened to YouTube sensation Logan Paul who boasts a huge 15 million subscribers. These subscribers have tuned in for years to watch him and breed his own form of stupidity, something which has helped him turn into a multi-millionaire by the age of 22. But recently, Paul made an insensitive vlog during a visit to Japan’s notorious ‘suicide forest’ as well as ridiculing Japanese culture throughout the video, a theme that normally grants him an absurd number of views but this time tripped him up, creating a global wave of backlash and hate that has caused him to lose a number of sponsors and fans.
A generation of likes
There’s no argument that getting a substantial number of likes, retweet’s or comments on social media feels good, regardless of if the people we are interacting with really couldn’t care less. The issue is that we are aware of this and continue to thrive off of it. I think most of us would probably admit that there are genuinely only 2–3 posts per-year that we should actually feel the need to inform people about. As well as this, think to when you’re writing a post; how much time do you spend thinking “will people find that funny?” or “I wonder how many likes this will get?” and then proceeding to check your phone once the post is published awaiting people’s reactions. Most sites set out with the intention of being platforms for people to connect and independently express their thoughts. They now resemble a shepherd herding sheep, albeit a multi-billion dollar shepherd herding an estimated 2.7 billion sheep, too busy checking their likes to see where they’re going.
With thanks to Fabian Castillo
