I hate it when I see a family sitting around a table, all looking
down at their phones. I don’t like getting onto the tube where there
is no eye contact because everyone is caught in the recesses of
their new iPhone 15. It annoys me when someone updates their
facebook status every other second. But when the doom and gloom club
have finished with their prophecies about the end of the world and
how social media is the termination of social interaction itself,
let’s take a look at if it is really true that social media itself
is the problem and if there may be some good that could come of
this..!
Firstly, let’s address the issue “all people who use social media
become less social because they spend more time on social media than
actually going out and talking to people.” Would it not be more
likely that the people who want to use social media in this way will
use it in this way and the people who want to go out and interact as
normal will use social media accordingly? As always, there seems to
be a huge outcry about the amazing invention of social media, rather
than the people who use it themselves. After all, anyone can be
given a tool, it’s just what they do with it that matters! It’s an
amazing way to keep in contact with old friends who are on the other
side of the world – increasing social connections where it was never
possible before. Visionaries can set up events for their causes and
share it with an unlimited amount of people.
Secondly, the presence of social media has given insight into
repressive regimes that could never have happened before! In the
days before social media, even when there was the internet, in some
countries, the press is fully regulated by the government. The
people could not communicate what life was like to the outside
world. But as seen in the arab spring, social media was instrumental
in bringing the people together and also letting the outside world
see through the eyes of the citizens, not through the eyes of the
media. In this respect, it’s a HUGE asset for free speech and
democracy.
Second part coming soon..
