Social media is a plague

In many arguments agaisnt social media, you would hear it from an older person, you might also would hear something along the line or close to “Back in my day”. While many people are able to just simply scoff and laugh at this, I think it’s important to beg the question, was it better back in their day? I would say yes, if we look at the differences it’s clear that aspect like relationships between people, and the news, were simply just better back then.

Before the first real recognizable social media site in 1997 people had to write letters if they wanted to communicate, and if they wished to see each other, they would have to meet face to face. In the modern day of social platforms, if we need to say something we can just text someone. While this is very convenient and almost essential in some situations, how does it affect our relationships with other people? Would a friendship or relationship hold better online than offline? I think it’s better offline. While it is easier to say things that you normally wouldn’t on text than in person, eye contact and body language are an integral part of human language.

Another very recognizable factor is the news. Before the age of media and social platforms, news was brought to you either through the mail, or your own two eyes. This made it easier to form opinions because you didn’t really have much trying to convince you otherwise, and things like fake news was less common. In the age of media, we have heap-loads of news that is just blatantly fake, and while you may think that means it would be easy to discern the difference, I would have to beg to differ. Whether it comes to people lying on purpose, to satire or even someone making something up to cut corners for a story, fake new is created everywhere and is made in large quantities fast. On top of that, with celebrities and influencers constantly telling people their opinions on issues, we as a society create mobs of peer pressure, making people think that they have to believe what we do.

Social media has become a plague to our society, whether it be through relationship, or news. It’s made us lazier and less likely to decide what we want to decide. I think it’s pretty clear, that our world would be a lot more social and knowledgeable, without the plague that is social media.

“laptop” by decatur library is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0