Social media… the pros, the cons and the ailing substance
Social media is an important tool for keeping in touch, for spreading news and creates a space for people to express their opinions, thoughts and ideas.
It has brought the world closer together. People in far away countries are just not that far anymore. It’s as though the world has gotten smaller. Criminals can be caught on anyone’s phone, wreckless drivers also. People can share news articles at the click of a button. People can share their interests and even make a living off doing so where before it might not have been possible, thanks to platforms like Youtube.
But social media has a dark side, and it’s getting worse not better.
There are multiple points on this front. The first, and most obvious, is that people feel they can say things they would not normally say face to face as they are behind a keyboard. This leads to hateful and cruel words being posted.
Social media has also been weaponised by some spreading fake news, trying to get people to believe a point of view by spreading falsehoods. These posts would, generally, try to paint the ‘mainstream media’ in a bad light, to paint the media as the enemy. Many journalists are in the job to tell the truth, to reveal the bad and fight for justice. It’s a calling.
The easiest way to check if something is fake news or not, is to research and double check the source of the information. Is something written about Covid-19 coming from a medical journal, a trustworthy source of news, or a source with no credentials? We need to better train ourselves to decipher truth from falsehoods.
There is another worrying situation that emerged with the rise of social media… addiction to it. Too often do we sit down at a restaurant with our partner, family and friends, and then just look at our phones. In the need to remain connected to the world around us, we are losing out on the close connections to people older generations have.
The way we watch entertainment is also changing. People spend hours just scrolling through Youtube, Instagram or TikTok videos. But even here, these videos are becoming shorter and shorter. People will watch quick 15 second clips of someone doing the latest TikTok trend for a quick laugh, and scroll to the next, then the next, then the next… But what exactly are we gaining from this?
Content creators would create longer content that is worth watching, and many still do. But these newer quick flip videos are now seemingly taking over. One questions what kind of effect this will have on us psychologically. Are we losing our ability to keep our attention focused on something for longer than a swipe? Are we now fast forwarding through Youtube videos that are 15 minutes long? Are we just reading the first paragraph in an article and ignoring the rest? Are we only reading the headline and commenting about our opinion on something without finishing the article, or checking the source of the information?
What about our attention span in ‘real life’? Will this have an effect? We have seen or known people who would spend what we would consider way to much time on their phone when in the company of others, to the point that it just seems rude. But in reality, could that be an addiction?
Social media has many positives, but also many negatives. The younger generations are going to have to deal with the effects of all of these things.