If ‘stalking’ were a course of study, I’m sure there would be a vast number of us graduating with a first class honours degree from the University of Social Media. If not quite to that standard, then we’d probably at least have sufficient knowledge to make our way to becoming prospective students, with GCSEs in Instagram filters, A-levels in Snapchat’s ‘Face Swap’ or BTECs in Twitter hashtags.
You might be sliding into someone’s DMs, adjusting the effects on your breakfast bowl photo to acquire the optimal lighting exposure for the fruit toppings, or holding Facebook responsible for the fact that you know their cousin’s best friend’s brother was in Barcelona on 15th March 2009 – there’s no denying how our lives are increasingly revolving around the wonders of social media. So much so, that it’s become almost a ritual to set aside those few unsociable minutes to snap, share and show off our location, as proof we actually were at one with the pigs, rolling around in the mud of Coldplay’s set at Glastonbury last week.
Though in recent weeks, social media seems to have become the hub for every Tweeter, Facebook-er and blogger to share their newly established ‘grade A’ political knowledge, it is becoming an increasingly iconic domain for other such reasons. Social media allows people to connect, showcase their talent, provide news (relevant or otherwise!), and sometimes it’s just there to be your own personal iCloud of archive photos and albums. So, as much as we hate to love our Marmite relationship with social media, we can’t criticise the benefits and advantages it has (the majority of the time) to our everyday lives. I know I’ve certainly learnt a new thing or two about how persons X, Y and Z feel towards the EU referendum anyway, so thank goodness for that…
I, personally, try to procure the positive aspects from the world of social media, but there’s no way to conceal or avoid the potential trolling and negativity that can sometimes be thrown in alongside those terms and conditions we accept when firing our e-mail addresses in to the social bonfire. They are our own profiles, designed for us to broadcast what we choose, which can be followed at people’s discretion… or not.
Though we may not always be grateful for the ongoing requests for us to help our friends in obtaining an extra Candy Crush life, or the die-hard sports fans expressing their devastation of England’s early exit from Euro 2016, or the loved-up couples celebrating their 3-week anniversary using the romantic art of Facebook poetry, social media is well and truly embedded in our lives. We definitely couldn’t live without it!
Images via Fanaru
