Technology is the glue that sticks modern life together. Wherever you look, you can see some sort of tech contrivance that people use to make things life easier and increase productivity too. We’ve also found a new pastime that is so powerful it has virtually erased the word boredom in our dictionary. No more idle moments if you can sit or lie down for hours and get to connect with the world through your fingertips. As exciting as this new world has become for the rest of us, we also can’t ignore its many drawbacks especially that we’d rather face our machines than real people or that we mindlessly waste many hours browsing our social media news feed and neglect our real-life duties.
Another important consideration when it comes to social media use is how addictive it is. Your phone is the last thing you use before closing your eyes to sleep and it is the first thing you look for upon arising in the morning. Social media got us in a tight clutch we can’t live a day without checking out updates and getting in touch with friends mainly because of our fear of missing out on all the latest happenings in the world. Whether to look at photos, listen to music, or watch videos, you can do it all on social media without having to go to individual platforms to do all the things that you like.
Take social media, for example. Users of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube may believe they are simply sharing their special moments, witty insights and hilarious escapades with friends and families. All this activity is enriching our lives, deepening our social connections, and providing fun and free leisure time.
Looked at another way, though, all we are doing by pecking away at our mobile phones like so many digital battery hens is generating massive data sets for machine-learning programs to work out how to sell advertising against us. The genius of Facebook is that all its users are — unwittingly — working for the company for free, creating its most valuable product.
(Via: https://www.ft.com/content/ea6c3a0c-0843-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5)
Without us knowing, we have opened up our lives to family and friends and even total strangers we have met online and it might not always be a good thing as online predators just lurk in every corner that the risk of having your identity and data stolen is a constant threat to your online existence. Social media may have painted our life with every color of the rainbow but there are gray areas too that you’d rather steer away from. Cyberbullying is one example of the perils of excessive social media use where you may eventually become victims of bullying and other forms of harassment from people you never knew existed before.
“Children who spend too much time on Facebook are still awake even early in the morning. They forget their time to study and to sleep,” he said.
Left unchecked, Bernadas said social media usage could severely affect work productivity and even socialization.
“Like any habit, social media usage should be in moderation,” he said.
(Via: http://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/162591/temper-social-media-use-netizens-told)
The youth especially the ones in their teenage years are the most vulnerable to the cons of social media as they have a hard time controlling themselves from overindulging and they are easily swayed by their peers to engage in all the latest trends without really knowing if it is for their good or not. They basically breathe and live in social media most of the time and despite limitations set by their parents, they still find a chance to sneak around and log in to their social media accounts whenever they can.
The thing is that social media is here to stay and we must learn how to live with it without being consumed by it so we make the most of its benefits with moderate use. Social media can benefit you in a lot of ways but when abused or used wrongly, it can wreck your life too.
