OVER the years, we have been using social media as a pathway to connect and interact with others through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like. We learned to value every single reaction, share, follow, and favorite.
Indeed it has been very helpful to us in terms of meeting its purpose. Our points and messages are perceived in a way that we want them to be and frankly speaking I think I am not the only one in admitting that, we do feel more connected now to the world than ever before.
However, as netizens, sometimes our over usage of the medium covers its very own purpose. Instead of real life connecting to friends, we talk to them over Facebook messenger even though they are just right in front of us.
Instead of sharing to others, we often share to our Facebook walls hoping that every like and share that we do will eventually give solution to a particular problem. But it won’t. Instead of feeling happy because we’re using social media, oftentimes we feel the other way around because of the very reasons that it frustrates us especially when we realize how unproductive we have become because of it.
There are drawbacks and consequences that we have to face because sometimes instead of connecting through it, it is connecting through us... and through connecting through us, it overpowers us. We get so used to it that we forgot its function.
Sometimes the news we see, hear, and read makes us confused and worried. We can read exaggerated stories and fake news that makes us create multiple truths in our mind. Although it’s a great medium because we become updated with what’s happening around us, we eventually cannot erase that fact that, we now stress over simple things because of the impact of social media to us.
It gives us entertainment. Through it, we can see the latest OOTDs must haves items, we can view what’s trending, and even follow our favourite bands and artists and read about what’s on their mind. But then again, as we let too much of it inside our head eventually it leads us in having disappointments and frustrations in life.
We can do anything we want but sometimes we get too driven by the things we see on our smartphones that we forget about the simplest things in life like genuinely paying attention to others and being the truest version of who you are.
I’m not trying to take sides here. I personally need social media but I’m fine not living for it at all. My motive for using it is solely for its purpose and that is to somehow get the message across and clear out the points that I have stated. I am not who I watch, who I read, nor who I follow. I know you are too.
At the end of the day, the question of whom or what is overpowering us depends on our own choices to protect our own morals and beliefs in a unique perspective. (Kathrin Keyt Semacio)