With the rise of social media in recent times, the social landscape of our lives has altered considerably. Where people used to spend quality time with their families on vacations, it is now spent using their smartphone devices scrolling through these social media platforms. The attention span of human beings has also decreased drastically as a result. In fact, according to a recent study the attention span of human beings is less than that of a goldfish!
Social Media
Social media has not only preoccupied our lives due its widespread use but also offers certain advantages and disadvantages in our everyday life. Through social media, connectivity issues have been resolved across the world making the earth a global village where people can connect with anyone they want beyond borders, ethnicities or religious barriers. You can explore different cultures and places through the comfort of your own room and interact directly by the locals of that area without having to spend thousands of dollars to get to the place. This shared knowledge and a higher connectivity are primarily the key factors for the popularity of social media in our society.
It should also not be forgotten, however, that the presence of social media offers an insane amount of freedom to an individual. A person can share his views on any matter around the globe that interests him freely with his/her audience without the fear of being judged and without any barriers of entry to prevent him from casting his own thoughts in front of the entire world.
On the contrary
On the contrary, a vast use of social media also threatens one’s privacy to a great deal in today’s society. By providing all your personal information to the social media platform and letting them track your every conversation and activity, we enable these platforms to direct our way of thinking in accordance with our behavior. While it may seem amazing to some, it seems creepy to others. The level of privacy has been almost totally eradicated in today’s age of social media. The machine learning algorithms running behind these platforms track your behavior with every move you make on the platform to know details about your personality that even you may not know existed in the first place.
The advent of social media, therefore, has both its pros and cons and it is up to every individual to decide which side to bend on.