Everyday calls for a social roulette with all kinds of social media platforms dedicated for various needs. I myself have been so reliant to these platforms that I never use sms or text messaging to communicate anymore.
Indeed, social media is everything you need in one place. You could shop, locate people, find restaurants and even study with the help of social media. I survived a year in the University of the Philippines, thanks to various apps in my phone like Facebook, messenger, YouTube, twitter and Gmail that helped me learn and communicate. I could also store files, every now and then and get fresh updates from professors and classmates about school works.
Maybe this won’t sound good when I say that social media has helped me to be more confident since it is still like hiding behind a screen but some aspects of it has helped me become a better version of myself. Before when I never had a Facebook account, I was camera shy and awkward at all group and family photos. But now I am more natural and outgoing.
Of course just like everything else, social media is a double-edged sword. They say, the more connected are we to the internet world, the more disconnected we are in the real world. For me the root of the disadvantages of using social media is being too reliant on it. We put too much trust on these platforms that we even forget to guard our own privacy. Recently my Facebook account was hacked and i was lucky enough to retrieve it although I had a hard time because I never touch my privacy and security settings. It always boils down on using it properly, not to be harmed or to be of harm to others.
The responsibility would always lie on our hands. We can’t control what others do but we can manage to watch out for ourselves. To end, I would like to share my personal commitment statements for the responsible use of social media.
I would be mindful and critical on the things I see and read on social media.
I would protect my privacy before I protect others.
I would promote healthy use of social media by reflecting it to all my accounts in all platforms.
Jimmy Writes 