I have very mixed feelings about social media, and so do many other people I know. I’ve thought about how the different platforms are commonly used and the ways that they could be used, so I’d like to share my thoughts about all of that in this blog post.
Social media allows friends and family members to keep in touch even if they live nowhere near each other and can’t regularly visit in person. People who live near each other can use social media to discuss their shared interests and plan events to do together. It can be a way to relax during stressful times by seeing uplifting or entertaining things, and it can be used to spread hope by sharing examples of things that are going in the right direction. Charities and other good causes can quickly gain more attention and resources with a few viral posts. Business owners can use social media to market themselves in ways they previously never could. And people who are struggling and are uncomfortable asking for help in person can use social media to reach out to close friends or family members. Those are some positive uses for social media that I’ve seen.
Now onto the negative uses of social media. It can be used to create echo chambers and bring about all the problems they contain. Along similar lines, it can be used to show the bad things in the world without mentioning the good things, making the state of things appear to be worse than it actually is. Bullies are fond of using social media to harass people in ways they’d never do in person. Because many platforms make extensive use of text, misunderstandings can easily happen due to the lack of facial expressions, body language, and vocal inflections, all of which communicate how someone feels and where they’re coming from in a conversation. Finally, social media can be a huge temptation to waste time by mindlessly scrolling, repeatedly refreshing pages, and arguing with strangers about things that don’t matter (and even if the argument is over something important, it almost always goes badly for everyone involved).
Does this make social media good or bad? My take is that social media is neutral. I see it as a tool and, like any other tool, it can be used for positive or negative purposes. A hammer can be used to build a house or kill an innocent person. A car can rush someone to the hospital or run them over. And social media can be used to spread goodness or perpetuate toxicity. I use it for the former whenever I can and do my best to stay away from the latter. This often means taking some time away from it so I don’t spend too much time there or start using it negatively. I usually feel better when I’ve stepped away from it and focused on something productive or just taken some time to relax and watch my thoughts. Then when I return to it, I have a much easier time avoiding drama and using it for good. Social media appears to be here to stay, so I’m going to do my best to make good use of it, and I hope everyone reading this does as well.