As we know, people nowadays
communicate through social media sites. There’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
+google, WhatsApp, Hangouts, Wechat and so many others. These platform enables
us to constantly keep in touch with our friends and family and it is proven to
be very convenient when the people we are communicating with are worlds apart.
With social media, there are no gaps or boundaries between us.
Apart from that, social media sites also enable budding
or established entrepreneurs to carry out their activities and communicate with
customers and clients with ease. We can see right now that there are a lot of
online stores popping up on social media websites such as Facebook and
Instagram. It is very convenient to shop online, hence the amount of online
vendors and shoppers are on the rise.
Students communicate with
each other or with the educators on matters pertaining to their studies such as
discussions on lessons or giving information about assignments, tests, events
and much more. The working professionals are also able to communicate with
their employer and keep in touch with clients or fellow colleagues. These
communications are mostly done in Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.
Despite that, there are also elements that agrees with
the notion by B.J. Mendelson that social media is bullshit. The creation of
social media as the modern tool to interact across the world has brought
negativity within the society and threatens the safety of a nation. Intensified
debates can escalate and create chaos based on their personal agenda. Not to
mention how politicians play their games in persuading and inculcating the
public with their ideologies through social media. This can sometimes prove to
be too much. Those who wishes to have privacy can forget about it if they have
social media accounts for they are the places where privacy is almost
non-existent.
Social media is often a place where people took freedom
of expression to their hearts. It is the main tool for irresponsible
individuals to jibe statements that hurt others without acknowledging the
consequences of their actions. Sometimes, social media is also a place for
people to steal away other’s money. These are called scams and it can be done
in so many ways especially with the availability of the internet. An example
would be through online shopping, where fake vendors would accept money from
people who wanted to buy something but the vendor deliberately failed to
deliver the item.
As a conclusion, social media is convenient but the
amount of downsides exceeds and is more malicious than its upsides. It has made
us slaves because whether we liked it or not, we often bow down our heads to
look on our smartphones’ screen. The addiction to it erodes interpersonal
communication in real life. The contradicting nature of social media agrees
with the notion that it is bullshit.
