Social Media is great. It provides
many, many ways to stay in touch with family and friends. Through
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and others, there is
constant updates about people. The wonderful new technology, like
smart phones and tablets, make it simple to update and stay informed
on what is happening. Like every good thing, there is a bad side. The
ease of use of social media has resulted in many different problems.
Five of these problems are a lack of interaction with the physical
world, over sharing, ease of stalking and cheating, and lack of
intimacy. Overall we need to consider the message being taught to the
next generation.
When you walk into a store, a
restaurant, or Starbucks and look around you will most likely see at
least 50 percent of the people interacting with their phones or
tablets. There is little to no interaction with their friends or
family sitting right besides them. Amusingly, some of these people
may be looking at social updates of the person sitting right there.
We have become a world of zombies. Technology has made communication
with long distance friends or family members easier, but our focus on
social media has destroyed the simple art of interaction. Everyone is
so focused on the latest facebook post, tweet or instagram no one is
taking the time to talk to the person right next to them.
Technology has made using social media
easier, so much so that is common to see over sharing. Over sharing
is revealing an inappropriate amount of detail about personal life.
Sharing happy, joyous, sad, or important news to people quickly is a
wonderful benefit of social media, especially to out of town friends
and family. Though the ease of use has created the habit of sharing
the mundane or unnecessary. Most people do not want to see a hundred
selfies of their friends or care if they went to the bathroom.
Popular posts are nasty fights between couples held over facebook or
twitter. As amusing as someone else's life might be, somethings
should be kept private. In fact, over sharing has become so
commonplace, it is used as stupid jokes.
All this information has made stalking
easier. Most social media have an option of posting your current
location for everyone to see. No need to follow someone around, all a
stalker needs to do is check the latest facebook post. In fact,
facebook stalking has become a catch phrase. Facebook stalking occurs
when someone uses social media profiles, pictures, and posts to learn
about someone. While most of the time it is harmless fun of girls and
boys just wanting to know how to approach each other, this catch
phrase takes away from the danger actual stalkers present. Stalking
is not fun and games. People can end up hurt.
Part of the appeal of social media is
the games that can be played with other members of social media. As a
result, social media has also become a hotbed of controversy about
cheating. The question is being asked of what is cheating on social
media. Some games allow people to live completely different lives,
which may be enjoyable, but how far is too far? Is it cheating if all
that was done were intimate conversation held through social media? I
have recently read about a couple that divorced because the wife felt
that the husband had become too intimate with another person through
social media. She felt that he was cheating. Cheating also takes a
different dimension as people can easily create different profiles
and hide them from their significant others. Cheating is not
acceptable. Most people do not cheat, but unfortunately cheating
seems to have become easier with social media.
Social media seems to say that intimacy
is a thing of the past. A time shared between couples or friends is
not complete if it was not shared on social media. There is a growing
lack of intimacy, brought about by the ease of use of social media.
For example, a person proposing is a very intimate act, yet often
that act is now recorded and shared to the world. An intimate dinner
with friends is first posted about then tweeted about throughout the
dinner, destroying intimacy. Social media is taking away the
intimacy. The things that used to be shared with a few is now shared
with a few million.
Think of the message that is being
passed to the next generation. They are being told that it is more
important to share something on social media than to talk face to
face. It is expected to over share, that everyone should know
everything about you, that privacy is non existent. They are setting
themselves up to be targets of stalking and may someday even accept
cheating. The next generation is learning that nothing is intimate,
it is only to be shared and must out do someone else. Basically, the
next generation's priorities are being turned around. This generation
needs to teach the next the values that we learned from out parents.
They also need to be taught the best way to handle social media so
that the downside of social media is mitigated. If this is done then
the great part of social media can come through.
