Monday 19 June 2017

Social media pressure

There is such huge pressure to be on social media sites.
News reports often quote Twitter comments.
I was just reading this article and wanted to leave a comment... but I had to log into Facebook in order to do so!

All of this tells us something very interesting about how the world has become: if you're not electronically connected, you're not important.

The article even points out that "the more we seem to embrace this social media-managed consumerism, the more unhappy our children become."

It's not just children. It's marriages too. (This article too.) The pressure to be connected and then to stay connected is huge. But this addiction causes a lot of depression. Internet bullying is rampant - not just amongst kids - as people feel that they are not shirking their duty as a civilised member of society by posting exaggerated and insulting comments on the internet.

Because humanity is incapable of treating technological advances properly, social media has become just another way for people to wage war against each other. Facebook has a tragic side which most people want to ignore.

It is that side of Facebook that made me come off it back in 2009. I have never looked back, never had any regrets. I might not be as 'informed' on the social life of people I might have met once or twice, but my life doesn't suffer from Facebook-addiction. Yes, there are some people I have lost contact with, but I retained the ability to make new friends.

Many people tell me that I should go back to Facebook, that I don't have to be so involved. I refuse to give into that kind of peer-pressure.

But now I'm finding that to be a part of online communities (and it's only a few communities), there is more pressure to re-sign up to Facebook.

It's as if Facebook has just become part of normal life. The term "Facebook official" is, quite honestly, laughable, yet so many people succumb. It's as if my refusal to be involved with Facebook makes me unacceptable to the internet community.

It's all or nothing: let yourself get sucked in, or be gone from the internet.

I'd rather be gone from the internet. There's no match for having real human beings for friends, rather than a Facebook faรงade.

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