Social media has became the way of life in communication, the way most people talk to each other and conduct business. The up side to social media and the internet in general is the potential and opportunities every day people have to advance in any field they choose which is a great thing. In fact, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat and Facebook has been the gold ticket in creating success for small business owners and random people instantly becoming “Instant Stars” by gaining success from videos, creating blogs, online stores and building their own brands all on different outlets on the internet, social media has also been the link to communicate with today’s entertainers and politicians making the road to stardom a somewhat easy road in a way that it wasn’t so easy to do 10 years ago, all you now need is followers, likes and views, talent is not focused on too much these days.
Over the past couple of years social media has been essential in major wrongs of the world helping to shed light and fight against hate, false information from the media networks, police and political figures and being an eyewitness so to speak in crimes and wrong doings which would’ve gone unknown.
I think most of us can agree on social media and the internet in general being a focus in how we engage with our family, friends and the world daily. But is there a thing as too much social media for us?
I think communications via social media is in many ways destroying the human interactions that we need to fully understand each other. I think people get caught up in the wrong things and they allow these things they see to dictate their lives because they think it’s trendy, hip and cool or they think that these images and status updates are that persons reality when in some cases it’s all a big front or a distraction from your own identity and personal growth, leaving people to automatically believe what they see, like the cool stuff but hardly see the real issues behind that cool snapchat selfie or the real problems and truths to what’s going on in the world.
I also believe it’s a platform to express your views and opinions but it also spreds ignorance and lack of compassion for others and highlights racism, sexism, body shaming, bulling, violence and unresolved issues because there’s a computer screen that magically makes people invincible, heartless and cruel and convinces people that they are perfect and have authority to believe that it’s OK to be judgmental, mean and evil to other human beings instead of learning about things and people to help fight against being this way in the first place.
Yes I know it’s not literally social media that tells or forces people to behave in distasteful and evil behaviors because everyone is held responsible for their own responsibilities and actions when online but these platforms surely are ways to help entertain things and people that are not productive in helping themselves or others thus adding to the problems of the world behind a screen.
Vanity is another one of those things that social media has us focused on and it comes with it’s own set of problems. To me it feels like we are walking around with our heads down 24/7 or we are glued to our laptops and forgetting that we are humans that have brains to think for ourselves and to not be as depended on microchips and devices. Most of us would rather text than call or visit a person, we can spend hours scrolling Instagram and Facebook without even realizing that hours have past because we get caught up in the activities of other people and information, yes I’m guilty of this too. I feel It distracts us all from so many things that can add to our intellectual, personal, spiritual and human growth.
I could go on and on about how social media and the internet can be a waste of time if not use in a productive way but because in some cases it’s a way of life to function in our society and for some of us it is a lively hood to generate income, but I wanted to voice my opinion on how sometimes it’s a good idea for us to step aside from it all to detox and refresh our natural abilities, thoughts and ideas and interact with life in ways that show we are humans and not an added extension of our electronic devices needing to be powered up and on to dictate our way of thinking and living.
But hey this is merely my opinion and perspective on how I see things and how I feel everyone could benefit in a great way to detox from social media and the internet all together just to maintain our human consciousness and abilities, maybe it can be 2 days, 5 days, a week or month depending on how you personally need to do it. I think the internet including social media platforms are a great thing it has shaped and changed our world but as the old saying goes “Too much of anything isn’t always good”
What are your thoughts?