Journal #23: Five Problems with Social Media
This is part of my 30-Day Writing Challenge. This is prompt #1.
Social media is quite an interesting topic. It has its great qualities and it’s not so great qualities. I obviously adore how I can easily communicate with my best friends from miles away in real time. While I lack their hugs and physical smiles, I still can feel a real connection. I can also check up on family and get updates on how everyone I know is doing. It’s a wonderful tool! However, it’s not always the best tool on earth. There are a lot of things about it that can truly cause some issues that are hard to avoid.
The first issue is that there are no true restrictions. There are so many guidelines for social media but no rules. Nothing is actually being enforced. I find that on social media, people are exposed to the vilest of things. I’ve seen graphic posts of slaughter and gore on FACEBOOK. (Spoiler? There IS a rule against blood and gore). I’ve also seen people being attacked in the most horrendous ways, whether sexual or just brute physical abuse. It is god awful and I wish there was more being done to fix it.
The second issue ties in with the first: the reporting system is always broken. Yes, I understand that social networks have BILLIONS of users. I understand that sites like Facebook are worldwide. But that shouldn’t be an excuse to have a feature on a website that doesn’t work. You cannot imagine the number of times I’ve tried reporting a truly bad post and the “report” feature said that nothing is wrong with it. Listen, I’m pretty strong willed. As a fan of horror my entire life, it takes A LOT to make me squirm. So if I’m reporting something? It’s some serious business. There are a lot of sites that try to save money by not hiring people and instead using an automated scanner, of sorts, to scan for “bad stuff”. I don’t think that’s always the best way to go, but hey, what do I know, right?
The third issue I’d like to cover also ties back to the restrictions thing. I absolutely hate that children can easily get accounts on social media. I feel that no child should be on sites that allow so much room for such graphic things. In addition to that? Children aren’t really that smart, and I mean that with as little offense as possible. They are still at an age where they are learning right from wrong, so giving them the power to be able to share their most private details (such as where they live) is definitely a no-go for me.
Fourth problem? Marketing. We live in a world where big companies do their all to make a quick buck. Social media takes that whole idea to a new level. They have put together the perfect mixture of apps, features, colors, and even sounds to keep users hooked on their products like bees to honey and I hate that. Social networking is slowly becoming less and less about actually being social and more about scrolling up and down a page like a mindless drone. I’ve seen people scroll through their twitter feed, lock their phone, put it in their pocket, look around the room, then pull their phone right back out to look at their twitter feed, ALL within the span of maybe 15 seconds. There is no limit being set and it’s really kind of saddening.
And lastly, my fifth problem: The number of social networking sites! This ties in a lot with marketing, but it definitely bothers me enough to stand on its own. When I started up on the internet, social networking was simply just known as email and chatrooms (MSN for me). Then things like Myspace came around (which I never used). Then YouTube. Then Facebook, Twitter, DeviantArt, Tumblr, G+, Snapchat, kik, pinterest…. Honestly, all these sites and apps hit me like a blur. I can’t even remember the order I encountered them anymore. While I love how there are so many options for getting out there, each with their own unique features, I personally feel there are just too many. Call me old school, but we don’t need this many apps and sites to be able to communicate with each other on the internet. And it’s all just for money anyways. Each founder of these apps and sites designed their product with a different twist to lure more people in for their own personal gain. And if not? There is no telling that it’ll always be so pure.
All in all? Social media has its ups and downs. By no means will I stop using it, but I hope to stay as headstrong as I’ve always been in order to avoid using it religiously. Hopefully, more people will learn that too. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Please critique this piece!
