“It’s the digital age. We only feel that we’re more connected to each other but I’m scared that we haven’t been this lonely ever”.
This quote in a recent movie really shook me. I don’t think anything recently has hit me this hard. And why is that?
Because this is probably one line that everyone will kind of relate to. We’re all so active on social media that we somewhere forget the importance and beauty of ‘real connections’. And honestly, with social media, the line between the real world and the so-called ‘perfect world’ has been further blurred. When we see others posting pictures and videos about their ‘perfect life’ on social media, we kind of feel bad or jealous and waste our time wondering why we don’t have what they do. It’s so important to understand that people just post the best parts or a ‘highlight reel’ of their lives on the internet and they wouldn’t necessarily be having so much fun. They just want to portray a perfect image of their lives, which subconsciously creates a void in ours and we stop liking the way our life is going. In this chaos, we often forget that they’re humans and they have their bad days too, but it is simply that they don’t want others to see that side of their lives.
As per the recent data, an average person uses social media for 151 minutes in a day as compared to only 90 minutes back in 2012. Recently, it has also been found out that the Philippines is the country where the total time spent on social media is the highest ( it is 3 hours and 53 minutes for an average person).
As far as India is concerned, more than 471 million people are on social media, with Facebook as the most used app. 33.4% of the addressable demographics of India are on social media and this number only seems to be growing with each passing year. Major users of social media in our country are either Millennials or the Gen-Z. They contribute roughly around 80% in the demographics which is indeed a high number.
Let us analyse the situation. Why are Millennials and Gen-Z using social media more than the others?
It's simply because they feel connected and can continuously communicate with one another irrespective of the geographical proximity. Communicating with their peers and colleagues is essential for them and social media comes in handy for doing so.
However, it cannot be denied that the Millennials and Gen-Z would relate to the following quote the most:
“We got so lost in our screens that we forgot that a world beyond that exists!”
Yes, well this is the harsh truth. All of us are so indulged in our mobile phones that somehow we can’t communicate and interact with others in person in the same way that we would do online.
The older generation of people have actually seen a life without mobile phones and they wouldn’t think that it is impossible for them to exist without having a mobile phone with them all the time. But what about the others? If we go and ask teenagers whether it would be okay to live without their mobile phones for a day or so, I think they’d freak out. They won’t be able to imagine how their day would go without using their phones. Mobile phones are indeed inevitable in their lives and there is definitely no denying that!
Like everything else, this digital age also comes with it’s own merits and demerits.
Let’s go ahead and explore them!
I think one of the biggest merits of the digital age is that it is making a lot of young kids and adolescents socially aware. They’re able to grasp adequate knowledge about topics that matter like gender equality, climate change, body shaming, the LGBTQ community and many more. Sometimes parents, especially in our country, aren’t able to open up enough and talk about certain things with their children. It may be due to the conservative societal norms or just the way they’ve been brought up. But they know that there are certain things that children should be well aware of. Social media comes in handy here! Parents are able to make children aware with the help of YouTube videos and various other relevant sites available online.
Social media also helps us develop various skills. There are sites which provide us the opportunity to learn new things and give certificates in return, which in some way feels like an achievement. Moreover, students are also being able to learn and gain knowledge about various subjects through social media sites like YouTube, Inshorts etc. YouTube also comes in handy to study about subjects taught to children in school. Sometimes, the school teachers don’t teach everything in depth and things are beyond the understanding of children and so they prefer learning such stuff from YouTube for free! Moreover, they can also comment on their doubts in the comments section of such videos which will help them interact with other people and clarify their doubts. In this way, social media is being effectively used and it’s benefits are being reaped. Social media also gives people the opportunity to courageously open up and talk about their personal stories. People who deal with anxiety and depression have started feeling comfortable with talking about these topics in the public domain through the use of social media platforms to make people aware about it. In such a way, they might actually build a community and help strangers on the internet who are dealing with a similar problem on a daily basis. They should always remember that:
“We’re in this together”.
If we deal with problems together and share them with other people, finding a solution might get way easier.
Social media can also help people in forming forums and discussing about topics that matter. One can also make friends through social media, which somewhere serves their need to socialize. Talking to friends who live far away through FaceTime, text messages and calls makes a certain sort of connection with them, even from miles away. People also use various dating apps to check their compatibility with people online. Survey suggests that the most successful relationships from dating apps have been between the ages of 43 and 58 ( success rate being around 72%).
Many people also earn money through social media apps. They’re either Youtubers or full-time content creators who make various kinds of videos in order to engage, connect and find their target audience. Moreover, they also earn money by doing paid partnerships. They partner with companies and promote their products to people, which turns out to be beneficial for both the parties involved; the companies can have their products promoted and increase their consumer base whereas the content creators earn money from these collaborations. Content creation on social media has been seeing an upward trend; today so many people are content creators and this has increased more and more since the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the country was in lockdown because people had a lot of free time and didn’t know what to do, so they would spend hours scrolling on social media which would help content creators to make more and more money out of it. These days, people have also been considering content creation as a full-time job, thereby completely relying on social media for their livelihood.
Social media indeed has it’s benefits and it can’t be denied from the points stated above.
However, with anything good also comes something bad. We will now look at the disadvantages of social media in today’s world.
Social media might feel like a great way to communicate with one another, but as per my personal opinion, it can also serve as a reason for conflicts and misunderstandings among people. People might mean something else and convey something else through their texts, which may lead to unnecessary conflicts among them. However, in the real world this does not happen because people can immediately clarify themselves in the moment.
Social media also makes people jealous and worried about their own lives. When they see others partying, becoming successful or just being happy and sharing it with others, they tend to feel that there is a void in their lives and that they’re missing out on so much, thereafter they start hating themselves even more. It has also been noticed that social media has been affecting the mental health of a lot of people, especially teenagers. Survey has shown that teenagers use social media the most, with approximately 90% of them being active. This situation is indeed worrisome and should be taken care of as soon as possible.
People often don’t show their real sides to others while communicating through social media. They pretend to be someone else just to fit in, whereas the person that they are pretending to be is far away from their real side. This makes them lonelier and unaccepting of actually who they are.
Social media can also lead to a lot of fraudulent activities like not delivering a product promised to the consumer, not paying the stipulated amount of money etc. Such activities sometimes make people feel that it is unsafe to engage on commercial activities through social media and they may even stop doing so.
One of the major disadvantages of social media is cyber bullying. People being bullied by strangers online significantly affects their mental health (they start suffering from mental health issues such as anxiety and depression) and they feel that there is no one out there to help them. However, one should definitely not feel alone in this journey. There are various mental health counsellors out there, who are always ready to guide people for free! Moreover, people can take help from various social media accounts like ‘ So Positive’ to create a positive and safe social environment for everyone. Talking to one’s loved ones such as parents, teachers or any other trusted person can also help. If people don’t do any of these, then they may get even more depressed and go towards the wrong path. Such issues must be treated well.
As discussed above, social media comes with it’s own pros and cons and it is our choice how to effectively use it.
It is essential that we use social media in a way that it benefits us the most and eliminate all those habits of social media usage that may force us to go into a loophole that we wouldn’t know how to get out of!
A positive social environment awaits us, only if we want to create one!