Social Media and Distorted Perceptions

We all like attention, that is for sure. We use social media to connect, but also to portray us in a good light. People use social media to bring attention to many subjects as well. Fun, that is what we want to have. Fun is fun until it is no more and so we stop utilizing social media and making use of those things that used to be fun.

Social media serves a purpose, and in business, it is important to keep track of the different elements that encompass a good website, an attractive platform and a showcase of our work. Social media can become addictive because there is no tapping on how much or how little we use it. We must be mindful of our mental health as we approach dangerous levels of content consumption.

Facebook, Instagram, X, and many other social media spaces were created for the sake of a fun way to connect, but social media has become a way to distort reality, to distort situations and the news that we consume from social media can be harmful for our wellbeing. 

Imagine children and adults consuming media that is so disturbing for long periods of time at once, these events can become someone’s reality as we begin to believe that artificial intelligence can become our friend. This is a sad view of the future, AI is only a tool, and not a solution to our problems and our disconnect from the world.

In many ways, social media has brought people together, by connecting distant relatives and friends that had not been able to speak in many years, or families who keep in touch through the use of social media. But just like it is a tool, it can become a distraction and a way of living that does not do justice to our existence. I am not being dramatic here; it is important to gauge our future based on things that are beneficial and not those that bring worry or anxiety.

Social media has become a tool for me to find out things that I do not know, like new musicians in the art scene or events that happen in my community, but it has also become a source of fear, as I encounter my counterparts, my friends and my family drift away from it. I have become a part of the social media that I once desired to use, now it is no longer fun, and it has become my demise.

Being social means interacting with people and in this time and age it is difficult to find people who understand us. Sometimes, we have been so distracted from our interactions by the use of our phones and computers, that it almost hurts to talk to each other. We do not understand what we are saying, and there is dissonance. My goal is to bring people together with the use of social media, but with the understanding that it is a tool and not a solution, it should not become a distraction to what life is.

Confucius said that life is what happens to us while we are busy thinking about something else. I admire this quote because it is true. We are sometimes so immersed in our own projects at work that we forget what we are on earth for. We are on earth to enjoy each other’s company, to make the most of our faculties and to enjoy our life.

I met someone recently, just like I regularly meet interesting people, I became obsessed. Part of the problem is that social media paints a picture that is sometimes not true, so I want to debunk the idea that social media is beneficial. It harms us greatly and it is sad to see a lot of younger people immersed in it. Adults must be careful and mindful as to value time together with families, and children, but also with other adults. It is not only necessary but fundamental, to understand what tools we have at hand, to make the best of them without abusing them. 

I started using social media at a later age and I am distraught as to how much it has affected me. It has made me become, sometimes, a person without a brain, and believe me I have one. I love to have intelligent conversations, to explore museums, to find things to do in my community; social media disrupts all that, it makes me want to be someone else, someone who I am not.

But not all is lost, artificial intelligence and social media can still be part of our lives with a structured way to use it in a manner that is not only providing content and information but in a way that it helps us get along. We get angry because we are disconnected from the world, and this is not a good thing. We can become better as a society. Everyone counts in this mix, and the things that we do in real life can be reflected in social media, with care and without creating anxiety for others.

There is a story about a town, where someone started a rumor, and the rumor was that the town would burn. The rumor spread all over the village and eventually the town did burn because everyone began to believe the rumor. The mindful thing to do would have been to ignore the rumor and to make sure that the town did not burn, but we often idolize or become mesmerized by appearance, this is incorrect. We must check things out for ourselves and see with our own eyes, touch the ground, smell the fresh air and walk with others. There is no value in having something that makes us feel good, if it is for our detriment.