Social Media’s Voodoo

This isn’t new, is it? We all know social media has some sort of black magic that infiltrates our brains. Good thing? Maybe, a bad thing? Surely.

We know and yet we can’t stop.

So, just what are the underlying bad effects of social media on us that we fail to see?

How does social media work in a way that's very addicting and that we can’t just stop…JUST STOP?!

The film/documentary by Netflix called “The Social Dilemma” gave a very detailed explanation of how social media uses AI and Algorithms to gather user information for profitable gain. That’s right, they leech onto each of the stuff we click, like, watch, and even what we hover over. 

One time you would just click over this weird do-it-yourself baking kit and then suddenly you are bombarded with different cake pans, parchment papers, and oven ads all over different social media sites. Also, maybe you watched a video on YouTube about fighting your arachnophobia just one time, and the next thing you know spider videos are all over your recommendations. 

This move by different social media sites is what makes users more and more addicted and glued to their phones. This is what couldn’t make us stop. 

Aside from the fact that we are leeched on by third parties behind our backs through Social Media, these are some of the curses Social Media voodoo has given us.

We feel obliged

Facebook is one of the largest social media sites today and is what people depend on whenever they want to share about their lives that they want the whole world to see. Be it being in a relationship, eating at a fancy restaurant at the moment, or taking piano lessons. But the problem with this is that we feel like we are obliged to share everything or every tiny detail of our life for people to see. We feel pressured that not sharing this specific interest of ours on Facebook early enough before your friends talk about it and tell them that you have been addicted to it for weeks, could make you look like a hypocrite. We feel that posting would make us look like we are doing something with our lives because otherwise, our lives could look empty in the eyes of the people behind their phones. 

Makes us nitpick special moments in our life

This idea is from an amazing YouTuber called R.C. Waldun. He relates a line from the work of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea (watch the video below if you want to know the line). In his video, he explained how social media sites make us forget living in the moment. Due to people only posting things that are fun, wild, and exciting, the spectators who don't have any of that constantly in their lives, would feel like their lives are empty and dull compared to these people who jet skis, who go to parties every Friday and people who travel a lot. But the sad truth is that social media makes us “view life as packets of special stuff and events instead of continuum” according to R.C. Waldun. As a result, no special stuff equates to emptiness. 

But in his video, he also gave a solution to this, he shared, that to combat this phenomenon we need to develop our capacity to face the emptiness and not be afraid of doing nothing. 

Be with/enjoy/live your present experience. 

We lost ourselves and the opportunity to find identity 

At this time and date, apps like TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. have been important places for sharing, thoughts, opinions, and ideas. But the coin has two sides. Today, the number of likes, reactions, comments, or shares feels like an important part of ourselves. 

We would post something that we are proud of and is important to us and if it doesn’t get even a single like, we would feel as though what we posted was bad or ugly, and in turn lowers our self-esteem. 

Social media is a platform where a lot of influencers, artists, and idols showcase their personality, abilities, and talents, as well as their interests and likes. With this, youth would adopt little bits of the people that they follow and then lose their own self in the process. We fail to see that some of the things in our room we buy because the person on the phone likes it. 

Truth relies on the Majority

Aside from this, there is tons of discourse on social media where they tackle different topics, mostly sensitive and some nonsensical. At one point an opinion that you would read would make sense for you but then an opposing opinion would make sense too, and you would scroll further to see what the majority of the people are on the side with, which would determine your choice. We lose our ability to think critically because truth relies on the majority. This is very much prevalent in the “Cancel culture” that is ongoing on every social media platform. One single mistake could cut off a person’s entire career that they worked so hard for. Even though some of these reasons for “cancelling”  are absurd and not credible. Because everybody says this person is bad, then this person is done for. This is a very problematic thing aside from it being a life ruiner, it also makes people a brainless cadaver who follows whichever has the most liked reply on Twitter--unable to think and make sense of words on their own. A “culture”  that is rapidly plaguing today's generation.

Ah the Social Media’s curse, one heck of a thing. But just like Miss Universe 2018 said, “But like alcohol, we need to use it moderately”, and might I add, let's use it Smartly! Aight mi’ bois! Look away from the screen for a bit and drink some water. Stay hydrated!

Click here for my favorite YouTuber's channel, he has great mind-blowing stuff there.