An examination into the subvertant nature of social media on trauma and abrasion
Social media is a haven of the 21 st century. It has made the world a smaller and more connected place.
According to statistica.com, there are 3,6 billion social media users worldwide. This statistic on its own has a number of associated advantages. It allows for significantly larger audiences to be reached. Business owners and get to thrive on social media because of how large the audience itreachesis. From online thriftstoresto designers and painters marketing themselves on social media. Social media is hub of progress, communication and marketing.
Social media does have a dark side, however. We all know this. It has the potential to enact savagery on self esteem and personal regard. Again, thisis well known information. What isless appreciated, however, is how content uploaded on social media can adversely affect the lives of those simply associated to the content uploaded. Instagram stories and WhatsApp chats are the major catalysts of statuses, everything Twitter and group , content that is supposedly private being spread and shared willy nilly
Recently I heard of a couple that was ferociously murdered. The act was caught on camera and was being bounced all around social media. It eventually landed on the screen of one of the victim’s brothers who had not yet found out about the atrocity. This got me thinking about the heartlessness of social media, the unsympathetic and unfeeling nature of social. Has society become desensitized? Have we become hard- boiled, callous robots staring at our phones with zero regard for old school humanity and humility? The desensitization of society is apparent, among other things, in the lack of sympathy in the air. Literally no one cares, no one. Murder video? Share itso that yourfriends are also entertained the same way you were by the video. A study conducted by the Michigan University concluded that college students are 40% less empathetic than students from decades before, 40% ! That is an extremely alarming statistic. Having sympathy and empathy towards your fellow man is the basic means of connecting with people on a level deeper than crux. It allows for people to get along and work in unison with tolerance and acceptance.
A lack of empathy and sympathy made even more clear by social media is as animalistic as man has ever been . In the animal kingdom, an animal that has broke its back for example and is no longer able to contribute to the hunt is left behind to die asit has become a liability. This is the direction mankind seems to be heading in. The difference in regard given to the rich in comparison to the pooris deplorable. A contributing factor to increased desensitization is rooted in social characteristic of watering down circumstances that don't warrant being watered down.LeT's take the Russia-Ukraine war, for example: how many parodies and satirical content have you come across concerning the war. From Tik Toks taking a bite out of the severity of the situation to reels making Putin’ styrannical nature into caricature. This isn’t all bad because we all need some flimsy, but we can’t always be flimsy. Sometimes we need to actually be human.
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