Social media is a norm we have all become accustomed to whether it be were swiping through instagram and double-clicking whenever we see something we like or scrolling through TikTok watching the latest trends and funny videos. This has become something we all do on our day to day routine whether we realise it or not it has become a natural habit that we incorporate in our daily routine.
It is used as a form of relaxation giving yourself a nice break from the realities of normal life. Nicely giving you access into online entertainment and whatever else is posted online. These are the biggest reasons that people get their phones out to view the latest updates on anything and everything going on within the world through instagram, twitter, TikTok, etc: to just have a nice little break every now and again.
When social media was created it was meant to provide two different key factors. The first being the ability to create a platform for sharing entertaining, original, quality content. Whilst creating is 100% happening but the general narrative currently is that content is very self promotional and the minuscule amount of decent and well put together content are spread and recreated to the point it becomes very saturated and useless.
The second factor is that social media would heavily encourage the use and access of easy message exchange. True meaningful messages. Although this has fallen quite short. This has mainly fallen short because what would needed to be conveyed with words and then could become a meaningful conversation has now been replaced with button called emojis that are now instead images for conversations. These icons cannot be a replacement for genuine accurate discussion and people can’t go into deeper detail on personal feelings.
But now social media has become a concerning and hostile space a far fetch from the idea that I’m sure the creators and app developers had in mind. It makes our worse behaviours even worse. Greed, gluttony, lust, envy, pride, and wrath these all pop up when we post, share, like, comment, and watch. These are constantly on display when we comparing our lives to others who have more or what we want.
Creating picture perfect bodies and unrealistic expectations of events and body type. Social media has become one of the most toxic places to visit giving people really unhealthy warped views on day to day life.
Friend become hostile and willing to publicly embarrass and put other friend on blast for past conversations and actions all for likes and attention to try and increase popularity. This is now causing people to be more picky with making friends as they could one day backstab or try and hurt you just for a claim to fame.
Social media can also create what is know as parasocial relationships with online content creators. Where we become invested in content creators wanting to know more about their life than purely just watching them as a form of entertainment. Many content creators have struggled with this Ludwig Anders Ahgren. It went as far as for him to release a very insightful video on the topic which I will link Video.
He goes onto explain that you should purely use content creators as a mean of entertainment, which I fully agree with. Further stating that it is unhealthy and a real concern to have you day ruined if a certain streamer doesn’t stream or to stick around to try and become friends with a streamer as this rarely happens. He also goes into the uglier side of it recounting weird stalker fans of his and many others.
This is especially concerning with a large variety of female streamers as most if not all have a notable stalker encounter. BrookeAB is a very notable case within the streaming world. She has talked very extensively about her very crazed fan who has stoped her going to certain events and even scaring her in day to day life. Her Experience.
Social media was meant to draw us together and unite communities but instead it has become a place for people to thrash each other with no consequence of action, a place which gives warped views on body types, standards. Creating a generation of scared individuals scared they might say or think or look the wrong way and to conform to social standards.