I am a very opinionated person. And I have always thought that I came to life into this world at the most perfect timeline. I am a proud millennial who experienced the darker days of dial-up internet, the entire spectrum of mobile phones (from the daunting yet durable keypad phones to the smartest of phones), and most importantly, how the social media became socialized media. Let us not forget how nearly all of us became extra smart because our mobile phones are chugged into our system nearly 24/7. We find all our answers in our overpriced handsets and sometimes even get answers for the questions we never asked. While it is too good to be true, I am left with a question that we always avoided to ask, are we really progressing as a human race with the amount of information we get from the internet? In 2023, where everybody has an opinion, is there even a truth that can truly set us free?
When I arrived in Australia, I already expected that there will be down times for me as I am practically away from my usual circle. I planned out strategies to keep me busy and to deal with potential loneliness. One of these was to continuously write about things or fact-based opinion and share what I learned, be it in academics or simply in life. The moment I set foot in Sydney, I was so ready. It was only until I realized, with the entire world connected to the internet and feeling like 80 percent of it are lies, how will the truth stand out here? How will my articles become relevant when I need to compete with all the content meant to make people feel relatable, even when these are yet just another way to advertise something or to rig the algorithm of social streaming sites for views convertible to money?
Is social media dying? Well, for as long as it remains a money-making thing with people as the products, it will never die. However, I am more concerned of its long-term effects of too much freedom it provides and the abuse it gets. I really don’t mind if people would share funny things or their lives or their wins in life. But what bothers me are those short videos that some social media consumers live by in making decisions with their lives. These high-risk contents include those about passive income ideas, how we are doing our workouts wrong, or what we should and should not eat.
The social media has facilitated a highly globalized world by connecting all of us wherever we may be. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has shown its full potential ensuring we stay connected regardless of any boundaries. It helped us preserve our relationships and even allowed us to reconnect with people by just knowing their names or affiliations.
These, however, also allowed us to disconnect with people or burn bridges that were not even there in the first place. The social media is also a playground for adults wherein all forms of bullying, harassment, and violence can emanate. It divided people permanently, just like how groups were formed during the 2016 elections that apparently polarized Filipinos up to this day. Had there been no social media, obsessions of both groups would have easily dissipated. But no, the social media became their platform to fight mindlessly battling who is right and who is wrong.
Another strong benefit is becoming aware of things in a single click. The internet, after all, is an information superhighway. The social media has also proven to be powerful in distributing information such as news. It has also been an important platform in raising awareness about various topics, including pressing societal issues. As social media users, we are able to access all of these information.
If anybody thought that everything on the internet was true, they should be banished. It can be drastic and harsh but apparently, the lack of sufficient judgment has already plagued humanity. In the country, we are flooded with false information and fake news. Why are these making waves? Because nobody can stop it. Again, the elections can prove what can potentially happen with a society so embedded with the social media. This has been likely the case in the 2022 elections wherein things have caught even the attention beyond the waters that surround the Philippines. Politicians take advantage of the naivety of Filipinos and sad to say, we are stupid enough to believe everything we see. To fuel our obsession, we become fixated that anything we can rummage on in the internet that supports are arguments are facts.
The social media has also connected us with the people we need for our businesses or careers. Some online platforms specifically designed for this purpose allowed us to reach out with our own discourse community and also enabled us to harness the value of our professional accomplishments, experiences, and skills.
While these are also available and could benefit from to get better jobs and careers, we Filipinos prefer to meddle with the lives of others and continue arguing with who could lead the country better. It is both a pride and an embarrassment to see that we are among the top 10 countries with the most Facebook users. It is also worth noting that Linkedin is not popular among Filipinos with the country not entering the top 10. This is a blurred correlation, but we should at least open our eyes that most of us care more of the things that do not generally benefit us in the long-term or that we are using these social media tools wrong.
Now, I want to be clear that the social media is not the problem. It is probably us and how we use them. While we Filipinos enjoy whatever we have now, we have to look at the bigger picture that these platforms have bills to pay, too. And if we are not paying anything to these platforms, we are part of their business models and our information that we give them is what they use to earn a profit. There are successful content creators earning by the millions yet we also strive to be like them. Is it worth it at the expense of propagating fake news, performing dangerous stunts, conspiring to conduct unreasonable pranks, and doing complete nonesense?
What I am writing is highly irrelevant. We all want attention. Some of the attention turns into profit or an advantage to a small group. What exactly are we spending time on? 2023 is a wonderful year. But society has fallen into the bliss of freedom they get from social media, failing to realize they are prisoners with a constant appetite for attention. We are not free. Not even the truth we have now will ever set us free.
Ilonggo Engineer 