The Lurking Dangers of Social Media

We live in a vastly different world than we did only a couple of decades ago. I remember how challenging it was to communicate with distantly located fellow humans when I was a child. Landlines and pay phones were the norm, and sights of smartphones were almost non-existent. The advent of the internet in the 1980s was the start of a new era of communication, and the rest is history. The interconnectedness resulting from the existence of this magnificent invention is absolutely staggering and it still succeeds in making me shake my head untold times. One mind-bending product born of the internet is what I would like to discuss in this article: social media.

Who doesn't have social media accounts these days? I believe virtually everyone having access to the internet has created at least one in order to communicate with people in their circle, such as family or friends. I myself am a social media user, and you can find the links to some of my social media profiles on this very webpage. The reason why most of us utilize social media is a no-brainer. Communicating with others has never been so fast, easy, and fun. In my case, for example, I can interact with figures who would otherwise be unreachable, such as American novelist Rick Chesler, whose writing flair I greatly admire, and British paleozoologist Darren Naish, who was so kind as to acknowledge my linguistic contribution to his book Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved. (Nobody can fathom how ecstatic I was when Steve Brusatte followed me on Twitter!!!)

Despite the many positive things social media can bring about, there are potential dangers that could literally ruin someone's life. One of them is what I would term "the social media illusion of perfect lives". Open your Instagram app and see endless pictures and videos of people enjoying the best moments of their lives. It is as if every shot is enough of a representation of their whole lives. This could definitely lead us to envy those people, desire their "immaculate" ways of living, and pity our own lives. Which is a pity. Of course, no one's life is perfect. Social media users naturally post what is good for their audience to consume; nobody would want to expose their shenanigans or such to the people close to them, let alone the public. Hence, we need to realize and keep reminding ourselves that what we see on social media is just the "tip of the iceberg" – there is an invisible, hidden swath which we may never know.

Social media also poses an unseen threat to the users' lives through what is called "echo chambers". "What are these seemingly harmless things?" you may be asking. According to Macmillan Dictionary, an echo chamber is "a situation in which people only listen to or read others with the same views, and so are not receptive to or aware of different views". Can you now conceive the tremendous harm this could cause? Living in an echo chamber, or a social media bubble, means your mind being constricted as you are fed on the same type of information over and over again. Remember that having an open mind is absolutely critical in life, and what echo chambers do is prevent the necessary input from entering your mind, hampering your development as an individual. So, what can we do to deal with this potential problem? We should not blame algorithms; instead, I would suggest interacting regularly with other people who have different views from ours. We need to digest their perspectives, consider them carefully, and do our best to come to a clear, unbiased judgment.

Social media is a double-edged sword. They can improve our quality of life by leaps and bounds, yet their lurking dangers can nudge us into a harrowing abyss. Let's use them smartly.