Social Media: The Veiled Hades!?

A kid comes back from school, so thirsty he can't feel his throat. But when he reaches back home, in spite of all the perspiration and thirst, he decides to check his Facebook & Instagram notifications first probably and check out what his possible new girlfriend would have posted.

This is the life of a normal teenager in this modern world. The urge to scroll through Facebook feed is so much, one can't resist it even if his body says, “Drink water first!”. Well, social media helps us relate to people, meet new people, market products, talents and a lot many other things. But is this kind of addiction a viable path for the youth to be following? I know, I sound cliche and all like those parents who resist the excess usage of social networking. But literally, aren't we better off staring at the world directly rather than looking at it through a small hole which might prove to be totally fallacious. When people don't have a choice, they go for the worst option. But we have the better option here. We have the freedom to explore the world with our own eyes and limbs rather than seeing it through this small kaleidoscope technology offers us. Sure, it lets you be in contact with old friends and lets you market your talent to the world. But that's where the utility ends. It is not a passage to the world outside. It is not the peek one needs, to have a glimpse of what's happening around.

Imagination spurs us on to higher levels for a reason. The world needs innovation, an imaginative mind that can remodel the environment around us, not a mind that has been confined to the 5-inch screen of your cell phone. Apart from the everlasting spam and false news that propagates throughout social media, half the news published under unauthenticated links are just opinions of laymen who might or might not have an authoritative hold over the particular subject in question.

Instagram is another network that appeals to the audience with sharing of selfies and innumerable snaps. The youth at times go through am endeavour just to post on Instagram that they are doing "so & so" in "so & so" place with "so & so" person. It has become more of a need rather than a way of just posting a picture of yourself on a public forum.

Twitter is not so far behind in this wild goose chase, this time behind celebrities. Innumerable Twitter battles are conducted over the world as a part of different worldly events like IPL just to gather more eyes to the event. One can do nothing but shed pity for the millions of people who have nothing better to do than devote their time to a fictitious battle with no-one.

The attraction to the social networking sites is obvious. It's got visual aids, humour, opinions from all over and tons of marketable products and talents that one can use. But along with all this it has got falsified content, hyped up social opinions, spam from the world over, cheap celebrity coverage and a whole paraphernalia of content that can do nothing much but add to the Recycle Bin on our Desktop.

It is an addiction that should be controlled. It is an addiction that we can actually even live without. That would be something the modern society would find it hard to accept, but social forums have managed to weaken our imaginative and innovative skills further confining us to the four walls of our room and our cell phones.

Use it! Don't depend on it! That's where the problem arises…


Written by Adishesh Premkumar
An ardent believer in lethargy. An astute follower of all the good things in life.