Living virtual lives
I was seated at my Dad’s clinic, going through my messages on Whatsapp when an elderly patient walked in. After stating the reason he visited and was asked to wait patiently, he sat opposite me and I noticed he was staring. He then asked me, ‘what are you doing? ‘. Not knowing the reason for his question, I was thinking of a reply when he said, ‘social media right? ‘. I nodded. He continued, ‘these children of nowadays don’t know what life is about. Instead of reading your books and trying to secure a good future, you aimlessly scroll through social media. ‘
Sadly, this is true. You wake up in the morning, first thing you do is go on social media. A little free time – social media. You were studying a material. You needed to look something up on Google and all your notifications start to pop up. You divert from studying to scrolling through social media.
Social media is a world on its own. It is the virtual world. Now, when I say Social Media, I’m specifically talking about the various mediums we use for interaction e. g. Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter and the likes. Social media has had a lot of negative effects on our generation. This includes unrealistic views of people, comparison, unnecessary distractions that have led to creativity being crippled.
Everytime you put something on there, you expose yourself to a lot of people (bear that in mind). This is why you want to be very careful of the kind of information you share. Don’t share sensitive and personal information. We’ve heard tales of several people who have been hacked, robbed, tracked or even killed because of the updates they put up on Social Media.
Nowadays, a lot of people can’t sustain meaningful conversations for long. This might be as a result of too much ‘living on social media’ . Excessive use of slangs which either do not make sense or are grammatically incorrect has become a norm . They rather opt for communicating online rather than face-to-face communication.
I know what you’re thinking. Social media can be very beneficial , yeah? You get to create awareness of your brand, get more traffic to your website, make money online…
The list is endless but as much as you can be very productive online, you can be much more in real life.
So, come back to the real world! Let’s make a decision together to limit our social media time and secure great futures like my elderly friend advised.
- Have actual conversations
- Spend time with friends – don’t post
- Meet people and their unique personalities in real life
- Don’t let social media be your ground for social interaction.
You’ll be grateful you did. I hope you were inspired. I’ll like to hear from you. Don’t forget to also share to your loved ones.
Don’t share sensitive and personal information on Social Media. #gloryinspires
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Don’t let social media be your ground for social interaction. #gloryinspires
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Gloryinspires 