Where Passion Meets Business
In the first part of this series on the Power of Social Media (How Much Do We Use Social Media?), we looked at the staggering growth of internet and social media use around the world. With the increased use of the internet and social media platforms, some areas of our lives must be substantially affected by our frequent use of connected devices.
Let’s look now at some of the social dilemmas of social media. What are they, and how do they affect us? I will talk briefly about some of the main ones – some positive and some negative. Given that I drowned you in data and statistics in our last post, I will try to keep this relatively light but give you some things to reflect on.
Let’s start with the mobile phone, aka smartphone – is it your best friend or worst enemy? How many times have you wanted to throw it out the window? How many times have you had heart palpitations when you couldn’t find it?
The age that children have access to smartphones and tablets is becoming younger and younger. There are doubtless great safety reasons for this, but the downside is that, from an early age, kids can move around a smartphone faster than some adults! For example, at around age three, my niece could access my music on my phone, find Beyoncé’s song “All the Single Ladies” and play it again and again and again!
Children grow up knowing how to access the internet. Unfortunately, unless monitored, this gives them the ability to get into all kinds of stuff, a lot of it highly unsuitable for them.
By the time kids reach their teens, they are old pros at using the internet, social media, chat rooms and so on. Have you ever tried to get a teen out of their room and off their devices? Often, being social on Social means being unsocial in the real world.
I have seen this time and time again with the teens of family and friends. They send messages and chat constantly, play games, etc., often well into the night. World War III breaks out when you try to limit the use of the phone or tablet! I had one friend who, in desperation, actually unplugged her modem and took it to bed with her to get her daughter off the phone at 3 am!
Are we losing the ability to talk without the aid of a messaging app? This photo says it all, but I will also give you a personal example.
A couple of years ago, my mother and I went to a café for lunch. A mum, dad and two tweens sat down at a table near us. From the moment all four sat down, out came the smartphones! We couldn’t work out how they had ordered their food. Maybe they ordered before sitting down. There was hardly a word said between any of the family members for their entire lunch. All four spent the whole time on their smartphones.
My own daughter (47 years old) lives and breathes through her smartphone. She has two now!
Is this what communication looks like today? Once upon a time, communication took a huge leap with the advent of the printing press, which allowed for the mass distribution of books and information. The rapid growth of social media platforms that encouraged ever shorter messages, e.g. Twitter, seems to have taken us back toward the Stone Age of communication in some ways! Somewhere along the way, we lost our passion for books and reading. I think there has been a decline in reading books, particularly in children and teens. A lot of my friends still read books but do so mainly on a tablet.
Email remains a popular way to communicate, as seen in the latest stats for “An Internet Minute.” However, I’ve always found email frustrating because some people will write a two-page email when a two-minute phone call would suffice. The same goes for messaging, texts, social media, etc. Yes, it is a lot quicker for conveying short messages, but it lacks that personal interaction you get from just speaking to each other! Quite often, the messages are so short and cryptic that the meaning gets lost. Are we losing the art of talking?
There has always been bullying in this world: at school, at work and even at home in some cases. The main difference is that before the world of social media, bullying was generally done face-to-face. It still made your life miserable, but at least you knew who and what you were dealing with. Yes, it was tough, but there were no invisible foes.
Today’s bullying causes a much higher level of pain, particularly for children and teens. Behind the anonymity of a connected device, the attacks have become a lot more psychological and sometimes deadly. Social media has spawned another method of bullying, cyberbullying, where untrue statements or videos are put up on public display to attack the target.
Constant nasty messages left on phones making statements like “nobody likes you” and “why don’t you kill yourself?” can make someone’s life a living hell. I have seen some of these messages myself. This type of bullying can be relentless and lead to severe health problems and even tragic endings for vulnerable children and teens.
Trolls come in all shapes, sizes and ages, but who are they? Hootsuite gives the following description of trolls. “They are people who deliberately provoke others online by saying inflammatory and offensive things. They live to make people upset and angry.”
“They rant, post death threats, spew hate speech. They attack an opponent’s character. They will say things to appeal to people’s feelings (rather than their intellect).” They make it personal, even if they don’t know you!
The internet is filled with people stating their opinions, including upset folk wanting to share their negative but sincere beliefs. Trolls often don’t believe a word they write but say inflammatory things anyway, just to annoy and upset others.
Simply stated, trolls = online bullies.
Where can they be found? Everywhere online, wherever people comment, post and share with others.
Now we have gotten the negative side of online communication out of the way, let’s not forget that social media interactions can be very positive. Don’t forget; the internet was invented to help people connect in the first place. It has been particularly helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic, where lockdowns and restrictions stopped everyday interactions between family and friends.
Social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger help people to interact with others when they:
Between Google and YouTube, there is very little you cannot learn how to do. I love YouTube. I have learnt so much from this platform. I have learnt how to change the batteries in my car keys, how to paint, how to make a candle, how to use social media and numerous hacks to use in everyday life, to name but a few.
So, yes, social media is very powerful, but some dilemmas arise from its use. Still, I would like to think that the positives outweigh the negatives. It’s really up to all of us to decide how we want to use it, and sometimes that might mean taking a moment to think before we hit “send.”
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