Okay, today is the first day of my 30 day writing challenge. And the topic is: 5 problems with social media. Let’s go!
One of the biggest problems with social media is the reality of it all; meaning the reality in social media is tremendously vulnerable to manipulation by its users. We see this all of the time on FB. Remember that happy couple that was always sending little, “I love you” notes to each other–several times a day? Yeah, wouldn’t you know it? They’re divorced now. Gasp! But they were so happy?! Nope, they just played a happy couple on FB.
Manipulating reality to make one’s life just a little bit shinier happens all over the place. It’s harmless, usually. But what does this do to the human interactions in real life–you know, the ones where trust is a necessary part of any friendship? How do we go from accepting a manipulated reality online to placing our trust in the exact same person? I don’t know about you, but I prefer–when asked–friends that I can trust and who trust me enough to be themselves around me.
A second problem with social media is that it creates an incredibly safe place for people to get their hate on harder than they’ve gotten it on before. The anonymity of screen names acts as a shield for anyone who wants to spout off on anything they’d like and then let’s them off the hook for dealing with the fallout. You can pretty much say whatever vile, hateful thing you want, make the worst kind of threats imaginable to most anyone you’d like and disseminate any information you want regardless of its truth and regardless of who it hurts. It’s very easy to stay anonymous online if you work at it.
Why is this a problem? Much like undermining the authenticity of interpersonal relationships (as mentioned in problem one), this cheapens interpersonal interactions terribly by making rudeness, vulgarity and nastiness the norm. In other words, it’s kind of turning us all into dicks. We can do better. It’s time to start bringing elegance back into our daily interactions. Every time someone gives a sincere compliment to someone else, a little of the rudeness goes away–and we start raising our standards for what is acceptable when talking to another person, especially when the topics of discussion are controversial.
A third problem with social media dovetails perfectly with the preceding two problems–is that it creates an exceedingly unrealistic view of sexuality–and it makes it easier than ever to slut shame and conversely, to approach others in a sexually inappropriate way. Dick pix anyone? I still have more of these than I know what to do with. I wonder if women are jumping on the genital-calling-card bandwagon also?
Why this is a problem? Really? I need to spell it out? Okay. It is the ultimate inappropriate method of communication. For real, when did this become okay to do? Like someone sees your picture or whatever on another person’s page and then decides to contact you–with a dick pic. Aside from being grossly presumptuous, it’s also not the most attractive picture you could send to someone. Sorry. But you should probably know that by now.
A fourth problem with social media is that is the most incredible database for advertisers to exploit–and although targeted ads can be helpful–it’s a little creepy. No one needs to know that much about anyone.
Why is this a problem? The way that many of these data are collected is, in my opinion, seem shady and unethical. Although I don’t know the exact process by which they collect their data–I can say that I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that one minute, you’re talking about where to have dinner and not too much time later, you’re hit with restaurant ads. I’m guessing that conversations are scanned/searched for keywords, depending on who the advertiser is. I can’t be the only one who is creeped out by this.
A fifth problem with social media is that it makes it very easy to invade someone’s privacy–and we set ourselves up for it. I know that I say more than I should about my own life on social media on a pretty regular basis. A lot of us do. And for the most part, it’s pretty harmless–we’re telling the people we’d probably tell anyway–plus a few more. But ultimately, people are too busy worrying about their own selves to worry about me or you.
Why is this a problem? Well, sometimes people know enough about you to cause harm or at the very least, inconvenient.
ealvfargond 