Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. These social media started off as platform for people to socialize and to be closer to one another than we were before. They allow one to be able to share his thoughts, interests and daily happenings online, so that friends and family understand him better. These platforms enable long time friends to catch up with one another and reignite the friendship between friends that hadn't been in contact for a long time.
Or do they really?
Facebook. How many "friends" of yours on Facebook do you actually know? And how many times have we seen an acquaintance name appear on the "Suggested Friends" column and click on the "Add Friend" button, thereafter carry on with our lives and never talk to said acquaintance ever again? Nowadays, Facebook has become a platform for people to "share" cat videos, interesting articles and "personality quizzes". No longer is it where people actually post "What's on their mind" and actually interact with other human beings.
Twitter. How many of us actually reads what all of our "following's" posted? What about for people with hundreds of followers? Do they really read every single one of the "tweets"? The answer is no. It simply isn't possible. Not to mention many people aren't even interested in most of their "following's" life. They simple "follow" for a "follow back" so they can look oh-so-popular.
OMG I've got 300 followers, I'm so popular everybody loves me!
NO. You're probably not really popular. And how can one possible read all the "tweets" on twitter if they are "following" so many people? Not to mention accounts that "re-tweet" every single "tweet" of another account to help publicize said account. Please, just stop. You're spamming my timeline with all the things I am not interested in. And no I'm not going to follow that account you're so desperately trying to promote just because you retweeted a hundred of their tweets, in fact I am going to un-follow yours.
Instagram. How many people actually read the captions on all the photos? Or are we merely scrolling through and "liking" photos that are appealing to our eyes? And does the number of "likes" really matter that much? People are no longer posting because they want to share parts of their life with others (actually, did people even ever do that for this reason?), they are posting to gain "likes" from others. Even going to the extend of faking their every day life. Come on, do you really expect me to believe that all these females bloggers have white bed sheets every day? Unless you're permanently residing in a hotel, white bed sheets are just the stupid-est idea ever. But yet somehow, all these "flat-lays" photos seems to have white linen as the background.
These social media, or should I say anti-social media, are slowly turning people into mindless robots that stare at the phone all day.
Platforms that aim-ed to bring people closer together are actually driving them further away. How many times have friends and family actually sit together and have dinner without looking at their phone? People are starting to lose the ability to communicate face to face because of these "social media". Talking to people while looking at them has become awkward and unnatural because we're so stuck on using these social media on our phones that it has become a habit to not look at someone when we talk to them. And if that's not rude, I don't know what is.
I'm not gonna try and deny and say that I'm not someone that doesn't use the social media, I am actually quite a frequent user of Instagram and Facebook, but let me urge you to try "signing out" of these social media and socialize with the people around you over a meal or tea and maybe like me, you will realize that face to face interaction can actually be enjoyable, perhaps even more so than those cat videos you've been watching.
