Social Media: A blessing or a curse? – Immy Holmes
Social Media is ever changing and, even for me, slightly confusing to keep up with. There are various arguments over its safety, necessity and productivity; but there is one view which I find particularly intriguing; why is there such a passionate movement against it?
For me, the most fascinating thing about social media is its ability to unite thousands, sometimes millions, of people for a single cause. One example that cannot go unnoticed is the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Don’t you find it fascinating that it only takes one hashtag on twitter to rope in the support of 13.3million people for a campaign that is so critical in our society? Maybe not.
So there are criticisms (Mr Thompson has enough to write a book), but are they really as bad as they’re made out? It is always a risk to put your personal details on a platform that can be reached by millions of people, I understand that; but internet safety is far too obvious a risk. I don’t know about everyone else, but even now that I’ve had Snapchat for four years, I still hold my breath every time I post a ‘story’; my heart sort of skips a beat when I send a ‘tweet’ and, as many of my loyal Instagram followers may have noticed, I only began liking other peoples photos very recently. It is undoubtably a fear of backlash. We live in a world now where it is very easy to offend people, and although you may see your post as ‘banter’, chances are, its the worst thing you could say to someone else. But is that potential for recoil really enough to fuel such a passionate hatred?
I would argue, no. It holds the potential for finding love, finding a job, connecting with friends across the world and expressing yourself on a (usually), accepting platform. It is the case for many that social media is a place for finding yourself. You can meet a group of people that you wouldn’t find anywhere near you, if you weren’t gifted with online communities. In fact, I know a few members of the LGBTQ community who found it far easier to ‘come out’ online to a group of people who had been through the same scenario themselves first, before confronting their family and close friends.
Furthermore, the development of the news cycle is ever intriguing. I would be fascinated to know how many Americans, and British, people found out about Trump and Clinton’s campaigns purely from what they saw or read on the news. There were never ending streams of tweets about the election, and both candidates- both personal and campaign related. Honestly, not only was it entertaining, it was interesting and thought provoking. I know that I certainly learnt a lot from what I read, originally on twitter, and then went on to research.
So how can something with such educationally benefiting aspects be so heavily criticised? Your guess is as good as mine, but I think its one of the best things that could have happened for our development as people.
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