Socializing … was when we went out met people or simply hung out with our peeps, or should I say Ahh!! the simpler times. We as humans are genetically wired towards learning from others, the precise reason kids learn faster at educational establishments where circumstantial life events, influences, surroundings, and healthy competition drives them to be the best version of themselves.
We like to think that we are in control of our day to day lives, yet most of what we do, from what we eat to what we wear to the music we want to listen to and even the way we are supposed to feel is influenced by those around us and also by those around them. Not realizing in some manner our actions can change behaviors, beliefs, basic health of some people, disseminate fads and markets, alter voting patterns and so much more. We are nurtured either to influence lives or get influenced by others.
From Rotary Phones to 5G …. one thing that has remained constant is that this sole device has always kept us connected with our folks, from a joyful to a distressful moment they were just a ring away and today as we say it just a ping away. What started off as the basic form of communication of passing information from “a person” to “another person” now has evolved into a platform where all the information is given to us as advice, a scoop, info, data, report, studies, inside story or the truth I can go on because every day it seems to be evolving.
Launch
Social media has changed the way people interact with each other, forever. First off starting in the form of “e-mails” which are continued to date advanced into social networking using a profile giving out information about each person’s interests. What initially started to support pre-existing social relations we already have or solidify offline connections as opposed to meeting new people, these threads of so-called friends may be weak ties in our list but sometimes there is some common element that pushes us to befriend one another. It engaged us in searching for people who we seemed to have lost complete touch with over the years, such as the shared classes of our schools, colleges or workplace. However, in this millennium age, human behavior seems to be changing the more they dabble with technology especially when they are spoilt for choices in determining their social circle. Aside from the fact that most people in the world use WIFI in their daily lives, social networks have become a hub to connect and communicate with the world at large.
Influencer
The complex nature of humans is a product of the environment they are in, the relationship they have with one another, their shopping choices, education … which are now all influenced by social media. How large does this networking play in our lives? More than you any of us can realize. The relationship between individuals and their social network either directly or indirectly influence their lives. Our own behavior, habit, faith, and actions are likely to be highly influenced and impacted by social media than we
ever could imagine. All the content we create, the articles we publish each of these are designed to foster a more intimate relationship with people, sometimes we don’t even know or have ever met so-called internet family. Folks adapt unique personas for different social networking sites, friendly on Facebook, formal on LinkedIn, #wanderlust for Insta Stories, and last but
not the least available for dating apps. Users tend to mold themselves with a desire to fit within the distinctive culture or etiquette of every site. Human behavior is supposed to be flexible, enabling people to adapt to different circumstances with ease but when these flexibility occur to “fit-in” or to be “accepted” into a virtual society that is when it can become a cause of
concern. It facilitates comparing ourselves and our lives with others which either may have a positive or a negative influence on us.
The Impact
I believe that we have a larger impact on our social media than we want to and combine it with a pinch of influence, and viola !!! we have a recipe for massive change.
Humankind has changed itself with the rise of social media and the 5G. As soon as we wake up, our hands are tapping away all over to get hold of our smartphones or gadgets checking our notifications chimed in from all our networks, shopping apps, reminders, to-do list not realizing that they need to step out of the virtual life and enter reality which by the way we, as usual,
are late for thanks to the “snooze” option ��. People tend to post only the good side of their lives, but we all know that life ain’t a bed of roses, we all have our own set of difficulties and challenges to face but yet we bottle up our true feelings and portray a perfect life not knowing that this may cause a negative impact on us. What we update on our online status to say has more than one ripple effect on our friend list. With access to our phones any time of the day, we fall into the habit of checking our phones
everywhere and this impacts our decisions of living our lives because we are dictated by the opinions, reviews, and ratings given to restaurants, apps, and shops by a bunch of some unknown people who you don’t even know, irrespective of your own individual taste and personality, we land up eating, purchasing or shopping from the top-rated places.
Emotions
Social media can harbor a flow of generally undesired emotions, we derive the justification of our feelings from not only our friends but also their friends’ friend. As we become increasingly network and involved with each other, it’s going to be more crucial to monitor our own influences and reactions. We become prone to social media moodiness, sometimes normal courtesy and politeness that we tend to have in our face to face conversations are reduced in our online interaction. It is next to impossible to decipher the tone of the person texting or posting on social media. Sometimes people tend to be mean, bitter, and always critical something that they might never open and say to your face, and all this kind of negativity takes no time to multiply a thousand-fold on the social sites. All this keeping up with the trends the rants and the lifestyle can get extremely stressful for us, we are obligated to edit our pics add the filters only to question ourselves “Am I pretty enough?” “Will I be invited?” “Do I look fat?”. Not only after dedicating our whole day keeping up our parallel lives, but we also invest our nights into it, which starts off as setting an alarm, but we also find ourselves wee into the hours struggling to get just enough sleep to survive the next day.
Closure
Social media is an extremely powerful tool. It helps connect people across nations crossing all borders and inspire them to achieve social change. The key is to use it in moderation knowing how many on your list are true and how many have filters put on them. We must also realize the negative and positive implications of social media in our lives, we do not need it every waking moment, and it is important to comprehend that we need to foster relations in real-time too, not just via a screen.
Checkout more such content at: https://gogomagazine.in/category/magazine/writeups-volume-2/
5