Primarily, social networking was created for people who seldom talk to each other, to be in touch all year long. It was created to bring the people closer regardless of the distance and difference in the opinions and it was also a place where one could find like-minded people and indulge in healthy discussion. One could easily peep into other people’s lives with just one click. But lately, the entire meaning of social media has taken a different shape.
Stalking people – One of the biggest use of social media so far has been to stalk other people and to figure out who is doing what in their personal lives. They have this urge to compare their lives to others’ and need constant gossip. Also, adding to this is the habit of people to publicize everything. They love to share every single detail of their life and this made life impersonal. It is also the reason why many of us have landed in trouble too.
Fighting over opinions – With the whole Amir Khan fiasco, we all figured out one thing – that even if we don’t have any opinions of our own, we are certainly not ready to listen to others’. Every small thing is blown out of proportion based on ethics and righteousness, forgetting that while doing so we are the ones who ridicule those two words the most. The youth needs to be a little more accepting and should stop giving more fodder to the media to feed on.
Hello there! – Dating and social media have become like milk and water. They are inseparable! There are also a few sites that have come up for the sole reason of making people meet their soul mates. Well, nobody is denying the fact that one can find true love over the internet, but that doesn’t mean that you ignore people who do not meet you in the cyber space. Along with that, we have become bad at conversations, we have no real connections and nothing holds our attention for too long. A little too heavy a cost to pay to be on the internet!
The NEWS – Who wore what, who fought with whom on which reality show, and which girl took offense to a stranger telling her something are the few things that are categorized as news on the social media. Gone are the days when we used to value news as something that actually gave us new information. Lately, it has just become the mere act of sharing everything possible to get the most hits and making money.
Trolling – Before you even see it, before the world even knows about it, everything gets trolled. Sometimes the trolls travel faster than light too. We have this hunger of turning everything into something fun and something that can be laughed about. This, like everything else, has its pros and cons too. While one needs his/her dose of laughter everyday and this is certainly helping with that, not everything should/can be made fun of. We need to have some discretion to figure out what is joke-worthy and what isn’t.
Social media has played a marvelous role in the evolution of the human race, but with that it has brought a set of woes too. Social media has become this space which can be shut out as and when required, giving people the convenience they always wanted in real life. The problem is that such things which people have become used to cannot be done in real life and that results in a major dislike for life outside the internet.
Social media has seen a varying role in the recent times. If nothing else, at the least Indian politics have been revolutionized due to same. But young people are still failing to make the judicious use of same. It has indulged them more in stalking, memes, trolls and wasting time. Although, it has served as an effective medium to serve the news but the basic essence of networking has been lost.