Page 56 - English Tehelka Issue 3&4

social media

n a winter morning, Social media menace: not achieved something.’ Research- lated to adults are equally pathetic. It also creates a false world
the screen of my mo- ers and psychologists have toiled for ‘GlobalWebIndex’ has published a around you. Alone in your house,
bile phone lit up early. years, surveyed many people and report that says, at the end of last you start believing that you have
A WhatsApp message found this simple truth. Studies by year, people were spending more millions of friends around the
O hung and I could read I knew I had been an Christina Sagioglou and Tobias Gre- than two hours on their respective world. Is it true? If you fall sick, no-
the excerpts, which winked at my itmeyer in 2014 found that spending social media applications and it body will come and help you to
torpid eyes mockingly. It read — more time on social media was one affects many things — from pro- reach the hospital. They will defi-
“Happy Birthday…”. No, it was not idiot to stay addicted of the root causes of our unhappi- ductivity to their personal lives. It is nitely show their ‘caring and real
my birthday; probably one of my ness. It was an old report. Present a global average. It does not belong feeling’ by writing immediately on
friends was mistaken or meant to crisis seems to be more sinister. Elli- to a particular country; although, your social media wall. The attitude
wish somebody else. ot T.Panek, YioryosNardis, and Sara 62 percent of people living in North is like ‘share first, think later’!
Why should I be happy for some- Konrath researched on the relation- America alone have Facebook We want to share any ‘interest-
one’s birthday, or rather feel unhap- ships between narcissism and social accounts and they spend a lot of ing or unknown thing’ very fast. We
py? If ‘someone’ was alive and this People’s constant dependence on social media is dangerous networking sites. They found it var- time on it. do not care to check the veracity;
message went to his or her inbox, as it affects mental health, promoting loneliness rather ies from one platform to another. The technology giant Apple’s we do not even care whether the
it would have been ‘meaningful’. It’s than becoming more social, sanjib sinha writes There are more complaints. head Tim Cook recently said that receiver would find it interesting
utterly meaningless to wish some- The social media really blocks out or not. We do that because we are
one’s birthday to somebody else real emotions. You may become competing with others to make us
and you could have been the victim normal 1 AM Darkness. Someone Let us enter the ‘meaningless’ a constant-attention-seeker. You Technology giant superior to anybody else — we want
of ‘mistaken identity’. People abuse tweeted, ‘Wow, lights off on the world of social media more deeply hop from one social application Apple’s head Tim to say, ‘look, how knowledgeable I
social media in the grossest terms. Eiffel Tower for the first time since and see what really happens there to the other for getting more ‘likes’ am!’. Sadly, most of our social media
After the infamous Paris attack, Fox 1889.’ Double mistake. The lighting and how it keeps affecting our per- or checking whether people have Cook recently posts remain unread. Most often,
News had mistakenly broadcasted was installed in 1925. However, the sonal and social lives; moreover, our given enough attention to your said he didn’t people quickly scroll downwards;
that the Eiffel Tower paid a tribute to wrong fact was re-tweeted 30 thou- mental health. ‘posts’. For you, ‘my posts’ become they do not waste their ‘precious
the victims of the attacks by switch- sand times and almost the same Yes, I also belong to those bil - more important than ‘other posts’. want his nephew time’ reading your posts. Within a
ing off the lights. Actually, it was the number of people had liked it! lions of social media users; the You really do not know what is hap- on social media. fraction of seconds, they jump over
majority of them do not know, pening inside and how it is chang- and give a quick ‘like’, expecting that
they do not have the faint - ing you. You are turning into a little It’s ironic when the recipient would reciprocate in
est idea, that actually they are dictator-in-your-own-world. due course. Constant mental cal-
making social media owners Every dictator is what you know someone like Cook culations run parallel. This person
super-super-rich by getting very well. History has proved it. worries about never likes my post, so I will not give
addicted to those applications. Only openness can save us from it a ‘like’.
However, people may argue, we getting lost in the maze of different a technological People say extremely rude and
can use them for free. Really? I views. Social media, although dis- invention insulting things and do not hesi-
do not think so. Nothing is free in guising itself as an open mediator, tate to abuse others. Troll or social-
this world. You need a device and actually closes your mind-doors. media-abuse is a major concern in
internet connection to use any so- One after another; and that is more he did not want his nephew on so- every country. Taking full advan-
cial media application. So, directly dangerous. cial media. You may find it ironic tages of communicating in real
or indirectly, you have to pay for For a brief moment, let us forget when someone like Tim Cook wor- time, extremists often misuse these
it. Majority of people believe it is about the adults’ concerns. Think ries about another technological ‘so-called-free’ platforms. No, we
free. But social media companies about the children. They are our invention. cannot blame social media for these
offer it for free because in return future. There are no points of re- The root cause of any addiction occupational hazards. That is not
they get access to precious ‘big peating a host of reports that have looks very simple in nature. It is all our concern at present.
data’! This is the first step to the warned of the negative impact of about ‘feeling high’. Think about ad- We worry about our mental
hotheaded ideas; and next comes social media on children’s psycho- dicted gamblers; whether they win health. Excessive use of social media
the disguise. Social media applica- logical health. For the last few years, or loose, they keep playing. A flock is a serious threat in our time and
tions disguise themselves as free these reports keep warning us con- of social media applications wheels we need to address it with patience
and just make fools out of us and, stantly. Children and teens easily overhead; it constantly reminds you and collective thinking. When eve-
finally, it becomes a nuisance to us. become victims of bullying. It ex- that something might have hap- rything goes out of hand and we
It may become a menace to acerbates already worse situations pened in between. Before it traps start experiencing the terrible feel-
your privacy. It may turn you into that are pushing them towards you, please remember one thing — ing of sadness, we do not want to
Narcissus. It makes you less happy the dark world of anxiety, depres- they want you to spend your entire say, “I knew I had been an idiot to
because after spending some time sion and loneliness. It causes sleep time on them for one and only rea- stay addicted to a stupid thing”.
on social media people often feel problems. They adopt the vicious son — they just use your presence
like, ‘I have wasted my time. I have cycle of self-harming. Reports re- for making more money. letters@tehelka.com

tehelka / 28 february 2018 56 www.tehelka.com tehelka / 28 february 2018 57 www.tehelka.com

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