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| source: aprenderanything.com |
I've been trying to explain this for a long time now, every time I speak up lot of people do not agree with me, some agrees with me right away and then later they just forget or they just don't care, some argue at first but later they agree, no matter what I say, what I do to make them convince at the end of day my words my actions and facts about this issue they've been just swept under the carpet. So whoever reads this article to the end I ask you to share this with the people you care about.
Without further ado let's start - what is social media?
"Social media is a collective term for websites and applications which focus on communication, community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. Forums, microblogging, social networking, social bookmarking, social curation, and wikis are among the different types of social media." - WhatIs.com
Yeah social media is a place where people can communicate, interact. Some of the applications or places need no introduction Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter we all are aware of these and probably we all have accounts in each and every social media platforms (applications) mentioned here already. It's great, we can share thoughts, our day-to-day activities, we can communicate with our family, friends, colleagues they are one click away from our reach no matter where they are in the world. That is the beauty of social media. And at first social media was introduced for the same reason we were just talking about - INTERACTION. Most amazing things happened because of these platforms, sick people found donors, millions of dollars were raised for non-profits / schools / elder homes , people who spent lot of money for international call charges they were able to contact their loved ones for free likewise there were lot of good things happening for like a couple of years. It's just because some of us we were really old-fashioned we didn't need social media to survive at that time because we were born without it. It was introduced long after we were born and we were fine with it and it wasn't a part of our lives until some time.
So after social medias become popular and most of these social media they were free platforms anyone can signup right away get started, but since these platforms were being used by entire world and their users increasing day-by-day social media companies they needed to make money out of it because due to higher demand they were supposed to supply that demand, make those social media platforms have best user/human interactions and user experience and so on they had to hire people who can develop their platform and purchase infrastructure etc. and it cost lot of money.
So they came up with a model where they can make money out of these interactions and users. Simple, "advertisements" AKA Facebook ads, YouTube ads, we've all seen them right? So back in time most of the startups or organizations they had 1 problem? Advertising. Actually it was not a problem because back in time we've all seen Coca-Cola ads through our TVs some of them in the newspaper. Simple right? Simple way to reach people because people are using them, so here comes the new contender "social media", just like before without reaching thousands of people or millions we assume now everybody has the chance to reach billions and that's just away from couple of clicks "tick tick tick"
Now they need to come up with 2 things -
1. A way to keep people coming for more
2. To know their likes and dislikes
A way to keep people coming for more
This was a million dollar question back then but they found an answer easily, they built lot of things we all know Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp status updates, disappearing status, location sharing, image filters, emojis, etc. lot of fun stuff right? Yeah. But we all are human beings we get used to stuff and after some time we get bored right? So whatever they've built it has to be interesting, by the day, by the hour, by the second it has to be interesting and otherwise people won't come back for more it's that simple.
To know their likes and dislikes
Y'all know that Facebook and other social medias they're following us right? No? then how can they know what are our likes and dislikes? This is just the tip of the iceberg there are other ways of tracking you in order to identify what you desire. It was done by using your location, your likes/dislikes in social media platforms, what you search in google, who is closer to you, by listening to your conversations, who do you stalk, what do you stalk, your chats etc. creepy isn’t it?
So they created another model for above 1 and 2 as well. But this time it wasn't that easy not for the company but for the user to get away, they will come back for more. Now they have information about your desires and it's just a matter of time until you close your social media app and come back for more.
How does this so called model work? It calculates and monitors each and every movement you make in that particular social media platform. For a example, how many time you interacting with a post it can be a video or a photo or a status update, which it is belong to? What is the topic is it entertainment or motivational likewise there are thousands of topics categories in the world where we can divide any information we can find on social media, so everything will be monitored and will create a world of your own. No matter how many time you refresh your feed you will find something very interesting. It's not magic that every person in your social media account share the same thing you interested in or even intimidated by, whatever you see you're going to interact. You will click, share, comment, stare, glance, take screenshots whatever you do you will come back for more. And remember this process is happening to each and every user in social media platforms simultaneously from the moment you have created your account until forever!
Yeah so let's talk about the danger in this,
1. False information
You know whenever you have a doubt or find something you don't know what you do? GOOGLE! Funny right? Google knows everything, and sometimes we tend to believe whatever pops in that search result, we don't research or search for more, try to find more authentic sources some people just believe whatever pops in there, so when it comes to social media platforms where lot of 'fake news' or false information generating day by day, people who actually see them find them very authentic and react, comments, share, send, react react react etc. they just don't know how this algorithms in the back are working. Those algorithms or models they don't know how to tell the difference from true or false, so whenever you react to those false information / news that model in the back or that algorithm do what's its born to do, it tracks your reactions, your social media movements and suggests you more of those crap, all day, everyday. And it's not the worst part the more you interact it will reach out to more million people who find those false information authentic and it will spread like corona all over their social media feed.
So when there is a action there is a reaction right? So it depends on the 'fake news' which just got 5 million shares! Whether it's good or bad there will be a reaction, sometimes it will hurt people's feelings, might play with human emotions a bit, make people emotional, happy, angry, insecure and sometimes suicidal! And all of this is happening without your consent but yeah you are a reason behind that to occur, indirectly or directly whatever, it's not your fault but a little percentage? Don't you think? Could've done a background search before you share you know? Could've googled, yeah? I thought so. There are cases where people were killed or injured because of false information from inaccurate, unreliable sources. What are we doing to ourselves? We are making a impact using our fingertips.
2. Lack of human interaction
Do you ever realize that there are people when you meet them they don't talk, they're really shy or nervous? But when you chat with them via social media or via text messages they're kinda active, very talkative. Surprised? I guess not, that's the other thing happening to 'human beings' unknowingly, like we don't have a damn clue! Boom you've just become a app! IM App I guess. It's because we are so addicted to social media and addicted to interact with humans through a cellphone screen we have lost all our human-human interactions without our knowledge.
There are people who shares their very private thoughts in social media but never tell them to someone very close to them or someone near them, family, parents, best friend, girlfriend, boyfriend nobody but feel comfortable sharing them with bunch of strangers who don't give a fuck about them. And failed to react with someone else in person, to express their feelings, show their gratitude, have a nice time rather than it's better to stick to their cellphone. Sigh.
3. Psychological effect
Okay let's just let this all complaining aside, we know that there are new generations which born to this modern era where their whole life is surrounding with social media, from the moment they were born their childhood, teenagehood, adulthood or their whole life story is online, happening right now, from where they are residing currently, their mood, their relationships, their habits, hobbies, fetishes etc. everything is now available online, they grow up watching people who decorate their faces with emojis or filters, dog filters, fake chins, fake cheeks, fake lips, eyebrows and sometimes people who actually gone through very painful procedures in order to be 'beautiful' are their role models. They wanna be like them, they compare themselves with their role models and their fake 'beauty' and the thought of normal human beings, the natural image of 'beauty' just no more.
Side effect is that, people now becoming more insecure about themselves, their image, their appearance, their social activities are less and less, not knowing how to interact with a real human being on a real life situation, lack of understanding of human emotions and expressions, I wonder what happens when the next generation is about to lead a civilization.
Just the thought of what is happening to our next generations because of this, is kinda heartbreaking, because the true nature of being human is no more, it's just bunch of people trying to be look on someone else's cellphone.
So we'll talk about some remedies shall we?
We can limit ourselves from our cellphone you know? Start by stop taking your cellphone with you when you go to bed and stop making it a priority to take your mobile as soon as you wake up, relax drink some water, go for a run or brush your teeth, take a shit I don't know whatever we did back then.
You can turn off notifications in your social media apps, make a schedule to use social media, or use parental locks to limit the time you can use those apps.
Find a good hobby which not include social media, where you can focus and lose yourself you know? Something you really love to do, like writing like me ;) play a instrument, learn a new language, go to the gym, there are plenty of things to do rather than looking at a cellphone screen and sharing all those fake news.
Or you can just deactivate your accounts and delete those apps and be free! Try it for yourself it feels great, without wanting to live your life according to new trends, or according to some meme page, it feels great, believe me been there, done that. Speaking from the experience.
And finally, you can share this in your social media feeds, and also with your loved ones, if you really love them you know? Keep in mind what is happening to you if you stay addicted to the things I've mentioned here, what is doing to you and to our world, and how it is taking the real meaning behind 'being human'
If you wanna know more for this, actually I was inspired by a documentary called "Social Dilemma" it's on Netflix, have a look at it and experience what I've just explained with lot of research and with lot of real life examples with your eyes! Cheers to a better world!
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