ARE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS NOT SOCIAL ANYMORE?

Authored by Jayaroopinni S S

Let’s start with some facts

It is recognized that ‘Friendster’ was the first proper social media platform that came into existence on 2002¹. Since then, we have seen a bunch of social media platforms being developed. Facebook has average of 1.88 billion daily users as of 2021² being the world’s largest social media platform. Instagram is a tremendously growing social media platform and the so-called Generation Z prefer apps over websites.

A ‘social’ revolution

Social media platforms (SMPs) have their own benefits of socializing with people. SMPs built an alternate world where even the introverts and reserved people have become extroverts by sharing their views, chatting and getting along with others virtually. We are seeing many options from sharing images, texts, creating open and closed groups, a 24-hour story or an IGTV whatever it may be, SMPs offer wide range of options for virtual social interaction with people. Many bloggers and influencers have grown by strategically using these tools.

Are people turning insensitive?

In recent times, social media is turning into a platform to judge people, rather than socializing. To begin with, people judge others maturity by means of their activeness in SMPs. Some heavily circulating posts read “Those who share too many stories are immature”, “Maturity is when you don’t share the food you eat on Instagram”.

People forget that they are using a ‘social’ media. Users are posting in their own accounts. If others feel annoyed, they have options to mute the stories or to unfollow the user. Blogging is a personal affair and it need not have any connection with other person’s maturity. Let’s see a real-world example where in your school, you are taking curd rice for lunch whereas your friend brings your favourite Chicken . You don’t directly attack him verbally for bringing that when you are eating curd rice. Where did that tolerance go in SMPs?

At some point people even started superstitiously believing those pictures taken by DSLRs or other quality cameras are the ones to reach the feed. No one knew where those standards came from.

Lot of insensitivity has been increasing lately. For every post or story someone shares, hate speeches and hate comments are seen everywhere. Fearing which most people refrain from posting their views on topics of great importance. Why can’t social media users see what others post as just a way of what they perceive? A healthy debate can build up understanding and bring up a solution, whereas hate comments just cause the real opinion to fade away.

Between July and September of 2020, Instagram states that they took action on 6.5 million pieces of hate speech on their platform, including in DMs (direct messages), 95% of which they found before anyone reported it³. Many people go through a post-traumatic stress disorders after experiencing a hateful environment in the SMPs. We have seen celebrities and even common people switching off their comments and deactivating their account due to this hostility. The situation has turned from the one where ‘users used SMPs to relax and to mingle’ to the one where they stop using it regularly to escape from the social media unrest.

 

Using SMPs doesn’t mean we can abuse anyone virtually. Even the real-world tolerance is not seen in the SMPs. Users should learn to ‘behave’ and to have a constructive conversation with fellow users. Social media can make an altogether different and a beautiful world if there is a change in attitude of the users for increased tolerance and sensitivity.

 References:

1. The History of Social Media - Where did it all start? (future-marketing.co.uk)

2. Facebook - Facebook Reports First Quarter 2021 Results (fb.com)

3. An update on our work to tackle abuse on Instagram | Instagram Blogs