Social media pros & cons

Social media has it's good and bad sides. I'm going to list a couple on each side from my own personal experiences. Let's start with the good ones first!

Pros of social media

• Of course the biggest plus side of social media and all that comes with it, is the ease of keeping in touch with others. If you come across something on your way to work that reminds you of a friend you haven't spoken to in a while, then you can easily snap a picture of it with your phone and send that friends the picture with a message 'made me think of you!'. People nowadays don't have an excuse to not keep in touch with their friends, wherever in the world they may be (as long as they have internet). 

• Next to this a big reason for everyone to keep facebook is because the events you get invited to. If you have friends like I do, that don't have facebook, you tend to accidentally forget to invite them because it's so easy to make an event and invite your friends through facebook. Even though an email is also quickly sent, you don't have the reminder or the RSVP in there, and any changes you make in the event, people will see automatically. It's easy, and we are living in a very lazy world. 

• We all have those people where we tend to wonder what they're up to in their lives. Well social media allows you to have an idea about their lives, depending on how much they share online of course. Either way usually the place they're living is stated, so you know you can contact the person when you're in the neighbourhood. 

• In this economy it is tough to find a job, so because of linkedin you have a network and people who you can contact or who could help you in your search of a job. Maybe they know someone who is looking for someone with your qualities! We all need contacts in the business world and this is an easy way to have that! Someone asked me to add him on linkedin so he could contact me when he heard of a good PhD position that became available, so who knows what effect he could have on my future career! 

Cons of social media

• So a big negative point in my life of social media is the constant contact you have. I love it when I shut down my phone so no one can contact me and I have some peace and quiet. However, as soon as I keep this up for too long, I get emails (which I do check on my laptop) asking if I'm okay or if I lost my phone or whatnot. Also I am the person who's scared of missing an important call. I tend to miss the old days where cell phones did not exist and internet was a new thing and very slow. I loved snail mail (okay last time I used that I was probably 10) and the excitement of getting a handwritten letter in your mailbox. At that time along with many stickers, which I used to collect. Somehow it was more peaceful and less forced. It feels to me like a lot of contact nowadays is forced. Such as the 'read by' feature facebook has. I tend not to read a message when I know I can't answer it immediately because I'm worried the person will think I'm ignoring him or her. Ridiculous, I know! But these things are going on in my head. It is also the reason why I changed my whatsapp settings to people not being able to see when I was last online. I don't mind not being able to see when someone else was last online, so I'm all good with that, and it did relax me a bit more. Also because of the constant contact, we don't write accurately anymore. Messages have become short and distant I feel. I love receiving long emails from a friend about their vacation or something that has happened. But I have to admit, I don't tend to write long emails either. It's so easy just to send a short message. I'm such a hypocrite at times, I know :p Blame the laziness ;)

• A big negative point of the social media is the ease for someone to stalk you. Like the song from Taryn Southern - crush (see the link below) which is awesomely humorous, it's also very accurate about what's going on nowadays. Especially for the younger ones amongst us that have no clue about privacy statements and who could see what you post and share online - because once online, always online. Even though I am very careful about what I share, I have had my scares from friends who've sent me links where there was a picture of me and I had no idea it was taken whatsoever. Not to worry, it was never any embarrassing or nudity pictures, but it is shocking when you see yourself when you had no idea about the picture or post whatsoever. Also this was printed in a newspaper on the cover... Through some friends I also found out that there are clips of me on youtube from dance competitions. Sure it was a competition, but it wasn't like I was somewhere in the background, the camera actually focused on me. But really I don't mind these clips, my point is how easy there's something of yours online for everyone to see without you being able to control it! And we have all googled crushes and facebook 'stalked' them. I try not to, I never used the star feature either, but you can't help but wonder what they're up to and just check their page out. We're curious beings and there is no harm in that, as long as you don't take it overboard and start stalking the person. Because with the combination of the various platforms and the activity of someone online, it is possible to know where they are at what time and figure out their daily program. Especially for those in highschool, it's so easy to know what classmates are up to. And these people are usually pretty careless with what they post and show online, not realizing how it can come back to you later in life in a very negative way. I wonder how the president in 20 years will cope with it, because there will be tons of that person online. It could be scary really. 

 

• A very big negative aspect could be online bullying. I am very thankful that that was not a big part during my time in highschool where I was bullied, we only had email, icq, msn and well I did not have the bullies in my lists anyway. Yes some of them did call me, but then you hang up the phone after you told them you know who's calling (I'm very good at recognizing voices over the phone, which freaked them out and made my day!). Nowadays with people taking pictures of you, videotaping you and then posting it online for everyone to see. I cannot imagine how that could be! People creating fake profiles of you just to bash on you... That's just horrible. The person being bullied is never away from the bullies. At least I had my rest when I was home and just dreaded the next day. The kids being bullied now dread what is put online, they get messages, it's a constant thing. I really don't know how they cope really. 

These are my main points on social media. Can't live with it, can't live without it! Just think twice about what you share on the internet and keep some stuff for when you actually see your friends so you have something to talk about. Keep some mystery alive.

<3