The first is Instagram capturing photos and moments. Tweaking photos to make them look better. Some completely edited photos which show little comparison to the original. You see a photo of a friend looking great and glamorous which the original didn't look as good in their eyes. A photo captures you as you are. We're all together in not liking a certain photo of ourselves. I see many pictures of glamorous cups of coffee and normal pictures when edited look greater than they are. I've had fun myself editing a photo here and there. However I've found for me I prefer real photos. I prefer seeing things as they are and seeing people as they are. Therefore I don't edit many of mine. If we were to meet up in person no chance to edit how you look. That's my personal preference I am not saying anyone should listen to my way. I enjoy all the photos and I like some edited cool ones. Some photos of people I would prefer the original.
Secondly we got to twitter. Little tweets of all kinds of things. I've put a few which say one thing such as - exhausted. While I am exhausted sometimes, I do wonder how interesting it must be for my twitter followers to read a one word tweet about my tiredness. Very interesting I imagine. I suppose a tweet saying "excited" is an acceptable one word tweet because it's showing something is happening. People wait for follows and some follow you for a short time and then unfollow you. That's a common instance in the twitter land. The most frustrating is when someone follows you then you follow them, then they unfollow you. Great thank you for that waste of time.
Now we go to facebook. I enjoy facebook for helping keeping in touch with friends and family around the world. I enjoy seeing what people are up to and posting things I'm doing or find interesting. It's nice seeing photos of weddings and birthday parties you weren't able to attend. The one thing about facebook I find funny is the whole "people don't like my status or write on my wall so they don't love me anymore" syndrome. Or someone didn't ask how I am doing in a while so they don't care about me anymore. Not everybody uses facebook often. Some friends I know have not even logged in for months. You can't rely on social media for your relationships. Maybe people aren't writing to you but what's stopping you from writing to them. Or better so picking up the phone or Skyping someone.
The same way the world revolves around the sun is becoming the same way the world revolves around social media. Social media is becoming more and more depended on. Imagine the catastrophe when a certain site doesn't work for the day. Imagine the outrage when they update the way a certain social media site looks. It affects our whole life. How will we go on. Imagine if social media went down, would life on Earth still exist?
Yes, yes the world can exist without social media. It existed before without it quite fine. Although social media has bridged international barriers where people can communicate across the world in a matter of seconds. I don't think it should be banished. I do however think people have to be careful not to get lost in it. Not to substitute in person communication where possible for a facebook message. Not to substitute phoning or talking to someone via skype etc to find out about their life for a facebook message.
I've seen my photos and others take a whole new level where you document a whole lot more pictures of what you're doing making social media more visible than ever. You have an insight in to people lives. You see a photo capture of moments of their day from their morning coffee to tanning by the pool to eating dinner. I know my family love my photos of my sandwich or my cereal. They sit waiting to see what I will eat every day.
You do notice I am pulling the leg in some respect of social media. This may come as a shock to you but I am sarcastic. I am not taking a dig exactly, I am more explaining my amusement and common instances where the world of social media has taken over. I have all three of the sites - facebook, twitter and instagram. I've done everything I've given examples of above. I am not a perfect social media user but I have become more aware of it as time has gone on.
I think it's a natural human thing to be interested in the lives of those we care about. It's natural to want to hear from people we care about. It's our freedom to post what we like and do what we like. It will be our stupidity though if we invest more in the social media world than in the real world. There's a world out there. No I am not joking, it exists. Look out your window what to do you see and what can you feel. You can see things as they really are, you can actually feel and touch. It's not a screen it's a live feed, a real live feed, it's life.
There are loads of benefits to social media. You learn all kinds of things, engagements, weddings and where everyone is travelling to, what they are up to day by day, funny things they share, keeping in touch and making people not seem too far away. There's a lot of good in social media. I love social media. I am a great user of a lot of sites. There is a good way and a not so good way to use it.
I am just raising a thought that I have spoken to a few people about in the past of how we as people and as a world are becoming more and more active in social media and how we have to be careful of how we use it.
One very important fact is to remember that although a vast majority of people in your life use social media sites there are also people who don't like them. Social Media is not for everybody. There are other ways to contact people besides the sites and we can't rely on them using it like we do.
This is a blog post which I have thought about writing for a while and I have gone with the flow of how my thoughts have come to me while I am writing it. I am not super social media person and I am not the best at using it smartly but I am learning more like we all are. It's just my general thoughts put together to illustrate what we already know but don't always realise that social media is becoming more and more dependable some instances staying on a healthy level and some heading towards the bad diet side.
Let's stick to the healthy diets of social media.
Until I write again,
God Bless,
Nicola Hill
