Sapped by Social Media

We are living in the information age. Long gone are the days when news was only a recurrence after every hour on a radio transmitter, when all the drama that had happened in a day was only accessible in the evening during the news on TV. When newspapers would sell as hot cake and even the most memorable events were a preserve of those who were privileged enough to own electronic systems. But now, now even if a tsunami hits the East Indies or Siamese twins are born in Guatemala, then we’ll get to know of it concurrently because technology and in particular the internet, has enabled for this to happen.

It’s an age of freedom and infinite possibilities. It’s also a time when human exploits and madness has been brought to the fore like never before. Platforms to distribute information have been enhanced. The rise of social media has also experienced unprecedented leeway to how people-irrespective of location, live their daily lives. It was all fun and exciting at the beginning but much damage has also been brought to the fore.

Take for instance Facebook, second biggest country in the world, in terms of population and quickly growing and will ultimately overtake China. Began by a 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, he launched the site as a Harvard sophomore on February 4, 2004 and in its first decade has seen such tremendous growth both in members and revenue and it’s now one of the biggest grossing companies globally. I like Facebook. It’s an avenue that helps to easily keep in touch, share thoughts and ideas but it can also get pretty annoying at times.

Much has been said about weird ‘Facebookers’ and I might probably be one so I won’t delve much into it. But you and I, unless you just landed from the now defunct Planet Pluto are part of the 1,600,000,000 member Facebook family.

Twitter, founded initially by Jack Dorsey who with friends had originally imagined Twitter as an SMS-based communications platform. This would have enabled groups of friends to keep tabs on what each other was doing based on their status updates. Pretty much like texting, but not. Jack sent the first ‘message’ on Twitter, now known as tweets on March 21, 2006 9:50pm. It simply read, "just setting up my twttr". Various other developments took place and eight years on, the platform meant for SMS between buddies has grown-albeit with its 140 characters max feature to an avenue that has 400,000,000 members and growing.

Having a meal at a restaurant... What is the first thing to do? Of course, get the appetizer or as called in hospitality circles, have the starter meal. But after many years, the trend has changed. First thing you do before gulping your meal is to take a picture and post it online especially by use of Instagram. Though not among even the top five popular social media sites, Instagram is unique and fun and also is the highest growing of all social media sites. Founded in October 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, since the beginning it has been one platform that has spread globally at a supersonic rate, causing the interest of Facebook which in April 2012 bought it for 1 billion of dollars. From having a million users in December, 2010 to the current 180,000,000 active users, 16,000,000,000 photos shared, and 1,200,000,000 likes daily, there seems to be no letting up by this social media site.

Man truly is a social being, just as is the nature of his Creator, God. Amidst all these developments with even other sites not mentioned here, why are we seemingly further apart from each other? I mean, there is LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, VK, Flickr, MeetUp, Ask.fm, Classmates and many more others, including the ancestor of them all; MySpace but seems as if we have grown even colder in communication and further in actual interaction with one another.

So, why not take sometime off social media sometime. Log out and get outside. Look around, smile at the person close by...but not for too long lest they update on Facebook that “A weirdo. Right next to me!” or do it too sleazily lest they reach out to their phone for a selfie.

Be social, away from social media. Live and love life.