Social media is this era’s way to express ourselves, and to make our feelings known to the world.
So you can find people sharing their interests on these websites… As Martin Luther King tweeted : someday “Tweeter is my alter eagle”…
So what is known as “social networking” is now spread to each and every corner of the world. It has actually become a part of our lives as youngsters as we spend so many hours, or even sleepless nights every day at Facebook, twitter, or Instagram … and nobody denies their benefits as they keep
us informed about the latest social, political, and international issues helping us forming an idea about the status quo. So there clearly are many benefits of social media. After all it contains the word “social”, doesn’t it?
The problem here is that behind all those social media tools’ constructive corners there obviously can be extremely destructive ones: those online communication channels are used in a very “antisocial” way. I still remember when a teenager’s tweet got very famous by getting re-tweeted
million of times, her post simply said” I’d rather kill myself than commit suicide”. However, we became highly attached to our “digital identities” that we almost forget, when using them, about the
real world.
Online bullying, private information’s sharing, creating fake accounts and breaching in someone’s privacy are all ways to misuse social media and to waste our very precious time. I think we all started witnessing how social media’s phone applications were changing our friends’ social lives when a
whole group of us start to chat, each on his own cell phone, instead of enjoying the moment, while hanging out, watching a movie, or sitting around the table… until someone decides to take a selfie to post it on Instagram for example. By the way, this social network counts more than 57 million selfies around the globe. A shocking number that proves people’s constant cry for attention…
Yes, we’re showing severe lack of social skills because social interaction has become overwhelmingly online rather than face to face, and what we need here is developing our social skills social media are trying hard to ruin. We imperatively need to get more open and available for conversations with our families and friends.
Parents for example need to appropriate social skills to their children: they need to practice communication with them: they have to offer talking points and conversation starters.
Eye contact, handshakes, slow and clear speaking, how to introduce ourselves and general conversation manners and politeness are the basics we are little by little loosing because of social
media. Most of us even no more listen attentively or respond appropriately and one way to re-socialize is establishing some technology free times or zones such as in the bedroom or during dinner. In fact, we have to sit down with all our family members at least four times a week and to
make it an opportunity to talk to each other by having every one turn off their phones. I know this may sound a bit hard to achieve because social media has a tremendous effect on us today, but believe me, with parental participation and youths’ cooperation, their effects can be positive for
everyone.
Credit to HAYEL Douaâ for this amazing speech !
Blo Bla 