In this blog post, we’ll explore whether social media is simply a waste of time or a tool that stimulates thought and expands communication.
As smartphones became ubiquitous, social media began to spread like wildfire, and as people started sharing their thoughts and daily lives in real time, social media has, before we knew it, become deeply embedded in our lives. Individuals use social media to express themselves in real time; a single comment from a celebrity on social media can become a major online sensation; and many companies use social media to promote their products.
Yet, social media has a unique duality: it is both a space open to the general public and a personal space that you create yourself. It’s like displaying your personal diary on a library shelf. Because of this nature, people often forget that they must take responsibility for the thoughts they express on social media. Countless people have been criticized—and in severe cases, socially ruined—because of a single comment posted online. As these incidents occur all too frequently, particularly in the entertainment industry, and become major social issues, negative views toward social media have grown, echoing the words of former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson: “Social media is a waste of life.”
However, I would like to view the negative aspects of social media from a different perspective. Before the advent of social media, there weren’t many opportunities to share one’s personal thoughts with others. Of course, one could publish a book or post on various community sites or blogs. But the difficulty of publishing a book goes without saying, and since anonymity is the norm on existing community sites, one had to be famous or address a topic of interest to the community for their posts to attract attention. Furthermore, personal websites like blogs have a structure where the “content provider” and the “reader” are separate. To ensure a steady stream of visitors, you still had to write posts that sparked interest. Even if the blog owner was someone you actually knew, unless they consistently maintained the blog, few people would visit daily to read posts about their mood or the events of the day.
However, on social media, your reaction to others’ posts directly reflects on the popularity of your own page, so each user becomes both an “administrator” and an enthusiastic “reader.” Therefore, when you post on social media, you are guaranteed a solid audience of at least your acquaintances, and those readers will take an interest in and read even trivial or personal posts. This interest serves as a powerful motivator for people craving social connections to start writing. Even people who don’t usually keep a diary start writing about many aspects of their lives on social media, which allows them to communicate with other users.
However, writing stems from thought. No matter how trivial the post may be, or even if it’s just meant to attract attention from those around you, writing a single post requires some level of thought. By posting on social media, users take a moment to reflect on themselves and their surroundings and organize their thoughts. When feeling down—for example, when the person you have a crush on starts dating someone else—you might sit in front of your screen with tears in your eyes, carefully selecting the words that best express your feelings to post on social media. Anyone who has used social media has likely experienced how this process helps bring some order to one’s emotions. Social media has a way of making users think more deeply and more frequently. Of course, posts made without deep thought sometimes draw criticism, but even in those cases, social media provides people with an opportunity to think while writing.
The flood of social media-related incidents and accidents that have occurred in recent years can be seen as side effects arising as users adapt to the dual nature of social media mentioned earlier. Social media hasn’t been mainstream for very long, and many users are not yet accustomed to thinking thoroughly before posting. As incidents continue—such as cases where famous celebrities have effectively vanished from the public eye due to a single comment on social media—users will gradually become more cautious. As a result, they will think twice before sharing their thoughts on social media, and the negative side effects will naturally diminish while, at the same time, the “power of thought” among users will grow stronger.
Until now, Manager Ferguson’s words have resonated with people, but I hope that through this self-regulating process, the day will eventually come when we no longer see the phrase “Social media is a waste of life.”
P.S.: Since I don’t actively use social media, I found it difficult to write both the draft and the revised version. As I wrote this by recalling my memories of using Cyworld in the past, please understand that there may be some discrepancies between this text and the current state and content of social media platforms like Facebook.
