We are heading towards a "Digital-Dystopia" of the 21st Century. Now you might think that I am deliberately portraying and presenting a wrongful and misleading picture of social media for you all, but this article aims to acquaint you with the reality and drastic changes in our lifestyle which have been ignored and overlooked for many years.

I just want you all to be responsible and aware of its negative externalities. Slowly, the whole idea of social media is appearing to be ironic. It was supposed to bring people closer, and the contrary has been observed lately by people. We are losing the human touch which is extremely essential for building good interpersonal relationships. Our emotions, feelings, and thoughts are represented through emojis and acronyms. The dark side of social media is even more toxic and brutal. Body shaming, misinformation, and materialism. People are becoming more superficial due to social media. Big corporations and brands are manipulating people's minds to induce them towards excessive purchasing. Social media is taking control of major aspects oof human lives and that is something to be worried about. Large social media corporations are controlling your data, information, and location for their materialistic benefit.

We are ourselves becoming more digital in life.

The above line has more meaning and depth if you read it carefully. We are losing all traits of a rational and ethically functioning human being. Our emotions are depicted through emojis; our love is depicted through texts; and our character is displayed through online profiles. One article is not sufficient to discuss the dark side of social media and excessive digitalization, but I will keep my focus on two main and important topics. Hatred and Intellect.

The above two are the biggest products of Digital-Dystopia. Hatred is slowly getting introduced into our lives. We have slowly started accepting crude, shrewd, and vulgarity in the wrong way possible. Check the comment sections of some popular posts, and you will see a world of hate. People abuse and curse each other for some sort of personal validation. This so-called image they try to propagate and instill in others. Dark sarcasm and insensitive remarks are thrown at each other with little to no consideration for other people’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Now that’s how we have made ourselves civilized and an ethical society. I don’t know whether you have observed it or not but even the algorithm seems very strange and disturbing. I have personally seen this pattern of posts shared by some people, where they deliberately show something offensive to demean and degrade a particular gender, race, or religion. Then they try to spread a narrative and propaganda of defaming and completely eliminating them from society. If someone views these events with a rational mind, they will observe the pattern and hypocrisy in their language, content, and approach. So, why do they indulge in such activities?

Their aim is to promote sexism, misogyny, inequality, racism, discrimination, intolerance, and hatred. I even say these things from the perspective of men, many times men are portrayed incorrectly and are judged for absurd reasons. Many times, the so-called women empowerment posts are actually a way of replacing patriarchy with matriarchy.

I personally want equality. I want to see the ethical and rational elimination of patriarchy from society. A society where women are financially independent and emotionally sufficient of taking crucial and significant decisions of their life. Women who are willing to stay powerful and educated for the betterment of our society and world. Women looking to work with men and all sorts of gender to bring positivity to this doomed world. Women are often misrepresented on social media and that is one of my biggest concerns.

Intellect is your biggest and greatest asset. Money, fame, support, and happiness can be acquired and sustained through intellect; social media is attacking this very intellect of ours to a great extent. We are slowly depleting our most crucial intellectual resources such as thinking, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. When did you write???

Ask this question to yourself!

Not an e-mail or some sort of text message, but when did you actually write something original and intellectual? Something that required the usage of human intellect. On social media, we are like a flock of sheep. Feeding on fodder that is served by the algorithm and we don’t even observe or feel the negative health consequences. We excessively rely on important and critical news through social media, and we connect our emotions quickly to everything available online. We have removed double-check and cross-questioning from our life. We are becoming blind followers.

The above are a few problems associated with social media and the reality is even worse and frightening.

Social media is one of the greatest inventions of mankind. It has done a lot of good, but we must control and regulate it ethically. We must ensure that it stays relevant to the very purpose of its creation:

“To bring people closer & together”

It’s like a weapon and you can’t give it to someone who points it at everyone!

.    .    .