Social Media Abuse

Since I was a kid, I was always encouraged to have deep discussions with my family. We always started with small conversations with elements of why, how come, and so on.

This habit continued to grow as I read more books. The more television I watched. Even until I was introduced to social media.

I've been playing social media since elementary school. Yes, since elementary school. At that time I diligently followed information about space science. I remember my dream at that time was to become an astronaut.

As an elementary school kid, I didn't develop my social media to make virtual friends. At that time, I thought social media was just a source of information. I could find all kinds of readings just by relying on the search bar. I started with Facebook and then moved on to Twitter.

Until I realized that I was slowly forming a dependency on social media. Diligently commenting on the posts of public figures. Joining many communities. Chatting with many people---when my original purpose of opening social media was not that.

From Twitter, I tried YouTube. From YouTube came another platform. Another new one emerged, another, another and so on. Until finally the platforms compete. And I'm sure users are unlikely to stick with just one platform.

Maybe in the morning you take the time to open Twitter. At lunchtime, you watch YouTube with your friends. When you're bored, you don't talk to each other, but scroll through the Instagram homepage. In the evening, you're on Facebook or some other platform. And that happened to me too.

Until I got older, I thought for a while. Okay, stop. What do I search for every day? What do I open as soon as I wake up? Where do I get all my information, my learning, my main source of gossip? Exactly, SOCIAL MEDIA.

I think social media has taken a lot from us. Whether it's small talk about our daily lives, our friends' confessions, our productivity, or our concern for the environment. I think these impacts have gone too far.

Because of social media, people's mindset has changed. Why chat about your daily life in your circle of friends when there is an option to post on Instagram? Why vent with friends when you can vent anything on Twitter with a fake account?

Yes, that mindset might sound reasonable. That's why at first I thought it was reasonable. However, the more I think about it, it's sad. Very sad. I began to understand that our sense of meaningfulness to the people closest to us was no longer there.

From there I asked myself. How can social media be so influential? How can social media make us dependent?

I brought these questions to the dinner table. I asked my family for their opinion and it turned out that all my family had the same concerns.

At the time, my brother was the first to offer an opinion. "It's a suggestion," and everyone agreed.

There is an important stimulation in our brain that plays a role in providing the impetus. As soon as we open our phones and find interesting news, we are compelled to keep watching. Once it's gone, we look for something else to watch. Once the second show runs out, look for more, look for more, and so on.

From there I finally agreed. Yes, it is a suggestion. Why do we use the word suggestion instead of influence?

Compared to the word influence, which is easily accepted by many people, suggestion is more emphatic. The term suggestion is more cruel.

The question is, are all people nowadays successfully suggested by social media? Yes, I agree. Everyone! Even ordinary people.

I dare say that real life has been dominated by the digital world.