How sad that we’ve become slaves of social media sites
A user holding a smartphone with icons of social media on the screen.
What you need to know:
- Social media has taken over our lives and we are slowly becoming slaves of tech giants.
- How did social media take control of our lives? Was it always like this?
Living without social media is one of the most boring places for anyone to live in the 21st century.
When we wake up, checking latest tweets, memes and crazy videos is one of the biggest addictions of our time, especially among Generation Z. We have to sign off the day the same way before drifting into slumber land.
Social media has taken over our lives and we are slowly becoming slaves of tech giants — Facebook, Twitter and others— which are minting billions of dollars from this self-imposed slavery.
A case in point was Tuesday this week when various parts of the world were hit by WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram outage.
Our lives literally came to a standstill for hours as Mark Zuckerberg’s teams worked to remove the bugs that had infiltrated his systems.
On campus, comrades were left in a ‘digital desert’ after books, movies, TV and radio failed to fill the vacuum left by WhatsApp.
But is this healthy? How did social media take control of our lives? Was it always like this?
I have been thinking about this for some time now and I really envy the good old days of our grandparents when social media was unborn.
People led real lives and enjoyed themselves to the fullest. They would compose songs, attend community dances, enjoy listening to stories and celebrate the tiniest of achievements without seeking anyone's approval.
During the analogue era, people enjoyed life without the internet. Today, the long telephone calls we had with our parents, friends and teachers are long gone.
Chats have taken the place of those personal conversations where we enjoyed genuine, hearty laughs.
Everyone says they are ‘busy’ for calls and we have to chat them regardless of age and social status.
The good communication skills that we learned in face-to-face interactions are being destroyed by chatting.
This trend is worrying. Social media should not be our main source of happiness.
Incidentally, there are very many other sources of happiness that we seem to be ignoring.
We should go back to the old good days. Let us enjoy reading books, having face-to-face conversations and making those lengthy telephone calls.
Caroline studies communication and journalism at Maasai Mara University.
