Why use Social Media?

Social media is an online platform where people communicate with one another by sharing opinions and consuming data such as images and videos.

There are many reasons why we use social media and this differs from age to age. Young people mostly use social media such as Instagram, Facebook, Snap-chat and Twitter to gain attention, self- validation and empowerment from others and to fill up their spare time. The more people we add, the more popular we are and the more we post, the more requests we receive. This increases our social network, which is mainly to establish and maintain relationships with our audience. The ability to share photos, opinions and events in real time has really transformed they way we live our lives. We live around social media and for some people can be hard to live without it.

It is common for young people to use social media as a way to gain self-esteem and self-love and in order to obtain this we spend most of our times taking selfies. Do I look good enough? Shall I add a filter? Is that pose okay? Oh that’s horrible, etc. So it goes round, round and round. People are spending ages, and I am talking about 5 to 15 minutes, in front of a camera trying to get the perfect almost dreamy image to fit into the mainstream society.

Whether or not we post selfies, they have a significant impact on our identity and on the way people see us in the society. Think about it and ask yourself this question: How do I want to be seen on social media? Sexy? Popular? Happy? Cultured? Or do I want to pretend to be someone that I am really not?!

A selfie is a human desire to feel more important and value interpersonal relationships; it is a way into the viral world. Once you've taken it, you post it. Once you've posted it, your face will be out there, shared and commented by the mass. Social media really defines the world in which we live in and shares experiences in real time not matter where we are. It catches the emotions of a moment, it can bring people together, it can be empowering, but it can also be detrimental to a person, especially if it is used inappropriately and continuously on the wrong social network.

It is said that nothing you put on social media is private. Have you ever tried and delete an embarrassing picture from Facebook and see yourself tagged in the same picture in one of your friends’ profile years later? Well if you didn’t, I experienced this. Our data is constantly available on social media and it can be shared and/or consumed by people using all sort of networks. This sounds a little bit terrifying. People need to be more aware of how they use social media, what they share on social media and with whom they relate to on social media.

If you think of the inbox email, once you delete something this will always copy into a delete folder and only when you empty that folder, the email could be permanently deleted. Taking this example into consideration, social media sites such as Facebook, store our data for a long period of time to provide products and services to people.