Do we need another social media platform?
Published: 04:07 PM,Jul 15,2023 | EDITED : 08:07 PM,Jul 15,2023
Last Wednesday the new social media platforms, Threads was released. I heard the news on the radio while driving to work and was curious to download it and try it out.
I noticed many of my virtual friends have already registered and sent me request to follow them. My excitement soon faded out as I found yet another distraction from life in general.
This made me ask if people really need more platform like this. No one can deny that social media applications have become a necessity in every day’s life.
Millions of users around the world use social media for work, communication and advertising. Social media also have powerful political presence.
Remember the January 6 right-wing insurrection on Capitol Hill in Washington and how social media was used to spread conspiracies and motivate users to storm the capital and attack politicians and security guards.
A similar thing happened during the Arab spring “also known as Facebook revolution“ helped people to organise protest and motivated them to take the streets.
Yet some experts believe that social media can also be powerful tools for vast disinformation campaigns, harassment, censorship, and incitement of violence against activists, journalists and human rights defenders. Covid-19 also showed us how powerful social media was in shaping people’s opinions when conspiracies about the origin of the virus and the effect of the vaccine became obstacles in spreading health awareness and get people to accept the vaccine.
In some countries Twitter became a strong tool for the public to communicate with the government and bring out changes. A good example was reported last week when a tweet about damaged roads lead to the situation being fixed in few days without the traditional process of filing a complaint and waiting for the particular public sector to take action.
We also use social media for entertainment and connecting with our friends as the technology provides users with tailored memes, news, and short clips of videos based on our previous online activities.
Such entertainment can keep us hooked for hours scrolling around and forwarding videos to our virtual friends. Some times we are so trapped in the experience that we fail to recognise its impact.
I remember days before Eid when my Instagram page was filled with advertisements about perfumes and the more I browse them the more they appeared.
It was not difficult to conclude that the algorithms built in social media platforms kept generating more offers to flood my page with such temptations in an attempt to influence my choices.
For businesses, social media is a smart and convenient way to reach out a wider group of customers and put their products out there and with the good use of the so called influencers, a small business can almost sell anything.
Needless to say that social media have significant impact on out mental well-being, especially teenagers who are more prone to depression and anxiety as they compare their lives to that of others and copy celebrities in an attempt to be rich and famous.
Faintly, a new social medial platform my excite some people but for me I would preferred less virtual life and more activities that involve going and connecting with nature.
I noticed many of my virtual friends have already registered and sent me request to follow them. My excitement soon faded out as I found yet another distraction from life in general.
This made me ask if people really need more platform like this. No one can deny that social media applications have become a necessity in every day’s life.
Millions of users around the world use social media for work, communication and advertising. Social media also have powerful political presence.
Remember the January 6 right-wing insurrection on Capitol Hill in Washington and how social media was used to spread conspiracies and motivate users to storm the capital and attack politicians and security guards.
A similar thing happened during the Arab spring “also known as Facebook revolution“ helped people to organise protest and motivated them to take the streets.
Yet some experts believe that social media can also be powerful tools for vast disinformation campaigns, harassment, censorship, and incitement of violence against activists, journalists and human rights defenders. Covid-19 also showed us how powerful social media was in shaping people’s opinions when conspiracies about the origin of the virus and the effect of the vaccine became obstacles in spreading health awareness and get people to accept the vaccine.
In some countries Twitter became a strong tool for the public to communicate with the government and bring out changes. A good example was reported last week when a tweet about damaged roads lead to the situation being fixed in few days without the traditional process of filing a complaint and waiting for the particular public sector to take action.
We also use social media for entertainment and connecting with our friends as the technology provides users with tailored memes, news, and short clips of videos based on our previous online activities.
Such entertainment can keep us hooked for hours scrolling around and forwarding videos to our virtual friends. Some times we are so trapped in the experience that we fail to recognise its impact.
I remember days before Eid when my Instagram page was filled with advertisements about perfumes and the more I browse them the more they appeared.
It was not difficult to conclude that the algorithms built in social media platforms kept generating more offers to flood my page with such temptations in an attempt to influence my choices.
For businesses, social media is a smart and convenient way to reach out a wider group of customers and put their products out there and with the good use of the so called influencers, a small business can almost sell anything.
Needless to say that social media have significant impact on out mental well-being, especially teenagers who are more prone to depression and anxiety as they compare their lives to that of others and copy celebrities in an attempt to be rich and famous.
Faintly, a new social medial platform my excite some people but for me I would preferred less virtual life and more activities that involve going and connecting with nature.