Let me start off today’s post with my experience of what people post nowadays on social networking sites like Snapchat and Instagram. The most common posts I see include driving in a car with some songs on and putting up stories which state how much time is left for a friend’s birthday. I find no sense in such types of posts. How do I care if you are driving somewhere within a city while listening to songs or how much time is left for one’s birthday.When their birthday will come, wish them in person as they are your friends. No point wishing on social media if you are meeting them everyday in your school or workplace or talking to them on phone. What’s more interesting is that people ask their friends themselves to put up stories state how much time is left for their birthday. I scoff at the stupidity of such people .I just don’t understand what would one get by getting wished on social media by their closest friends.It might be because such people are insecure about their status in the society or they think that their self-esteem and respect would increase if people post about them.(These are solely my views. You are free to disagree and voice your opinion in the comment section.Also I would love to know if such types of posts are prevalent outside India too). I strongly think that social media is making us insecure about our lives.
The above example gives us a glimpse of the bad side of social media and I would again touch that topic later in this blog. But there is indeed a positive side to social media as well. It helps us in obtaining opinions of different people regarding a certain issue. It also allows us to follow our favourite celebrities and helps us to connect with people in different parts of the world. It is also an effective tool to promote our businesses(You are probably here viewing my blog just because of Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook). So obviously social media isn’t that bad as some people project it to be.
But there is a really dark side to it as well. Besides making people insecure about their lives(I actually felt left out and insecure because of social media for a certain period of time), I feel social networking has become the primary activity in many people’s lives. You go to a party, all people are doing is using their phones and putting up stories that they are partying at abc place. They seldom talk to each other at social gatherings and are busy on their phones updating their status and putting up stories.
Another thing that sucks about social media is that it shows only one part of a person’s life and how unreliable it is in telling what is actually happening in one’ life. Let’s take the example of Avicii, the famous Swedish musician who committed suicide almost a year back. If you followed him on Instagram, you would know how merry his posts were just before he committed suicide. He was recording music , going on trips with friends and seemed happy in general. And then one day, news flashed on our phones that Avicii has committed suicide because he was suffering from depression. This shows there is a lot of difference in what happens in real life and what is shown on social media.
I don’t discourage anyone to use social media as it as great source of information, entertainment and business tool. But, just think that before adding a post that is your post relevant and would interest others. If yes, go ahead and post it. If no, I would strongly advise you to restrain from adding it to your feed.
Over and Out
Tantalizing Thoughts 