The emergence of social media platforms really took us by storm – an entire virtual world that is within our grasp just by going online using our devices which could easily fit in our pockets.
Social networking undoubtedly has benefitted those who participate in them personally, academically and professionally, but it is not without setbacks.
Impressionable youths usually go application hopping on mainstream social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and TikTok. Hours of scouring through unfiltered content may also be the reason why the younger generation shifted their mindsets.
Social media has given those with advocacies an amplified voice, but ideologies aren’t as simple as black and white. A person’s belief could be subjective and at times, objectively immoral.
You can look into any controversial posts and in the comment section you will see several opinions clashing, expressed with the articulation of a feral mind.
Toxicity has spread like a sickness. Comparable to ancient Rome and its road system — the roads that gave faster accessibility to travelers and merchants also gave a pathway for the plague to spread more rapidly.
Positivity can be seen throughout the web but negativity still looms like a storm brewing in the distance. It is not difficult to gather up the courage to speak your piece, kind or not, when your only connection to the recipient is a screen.
With the pandemic, we don’t really have much of a choice but to stay at home and wallow in our boredom, and so we turn to virtual entertainment.
We are basically desensitized when we encounter an opportunity to respond via social media. It is perhaps a side effect when our means of conveying a thought online is void of emotion, sentiment and non-verbal cues. We cannot simply extrapolate the impact of a conversation online from a conversation in person.
With this point, I think it is important to limit ourselves to the exposure of a chaotic virtual co-existence. We need to build a strong foundation based on our own beliefs and convictions so that we will not be so easily swayed by the persuasive arguments we see throughout the internet without the validity of the points presented.
Take the time to get to know what you really want to be and what you want to believe in without the dissuading voice of the masses.
Learn how to compartmentalize which ideas are your own and which are of others, or which ones are said to be right and which are what you think is right.
A jarring environment after all makes the most resilient people.
