Roll With It
New member
Social Media. Billions of people like this.
Throughout history there have always been people who rebel against progress and want to stick with being conservative and I guess this is a similar situation. But like the Luddites of England and the people who opposed the freeing of the slaves, we will look back on the people who are against social media and see them as uneducated and backward. Social media is the way of the future and as our esteemed Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, always tells us, as a society, we must always be “moving forward”.
I cannot believe that the whingers who complain about social media cannot see the real positives that it offers.
Firstly, aren’t we always taught that in life it’s often who you know, not what you know? Well social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn (a website where professionals build a profile for prospective businesses to look at) allow us to make real connections and network with people all over world. LinkedIn has helped thousands of people to organise jobs and find investors. How can this be ignored?
Secondly, social media has allowed us to build meaningful relationships with people we may never had met in real life had it not been for the internet. Think of all the marriages that started on websites such as RSVP and Oasis. And it’s not just people looking for a partner that have benefited. Literally millions of people all over the globe have made new friends and found old ones on Facebook and MySpace. Social media has opened up doors to people that may have previously been locked forever.
Thirdly, social media has become the number one source of instant news. On Twitter we can find out what is happening in our street, our town, our state, our country or anywhere on the globe. We don’t have to wait for tomorrow’s newspaper to know what is happening right now. It helps to make us more educated and isn’t a more knowledgeable society what we really want?
Lastly, and I think most importantly, social media is generally free as long as you can access the internet. It doesn’t cost a cent to register on Facebook and what you receive in return is hour upon hour of entertainment and enjoyment. Is there another form of entertainment in the world that reaches as many people and is free? A book costs money. A DVD costs money. A computer game costs money. Perhaps free to air television is the only thing that comes close and even that isn’t interactive like social media.
If I said that social media is perfect, it would be a blatant lie. There are obvious problems like privacy and security that need to be addressed. And I’m happy to be at the forefront of any group that lobbies for tighter laws and rules. But there are serious problems throughout all areas of society. Murder, rape, physical assault, poverty, pollution, the list could go on forever. Social media doesn’t cause these problems and shouldn’t be treated like the black plague. In fact, if the idiots who are crusading against social media actually opened their eyes they’d realise that social media could help educate and unite people all over the world.
It’s simple, you can’t stop progress. Social media, technology and the internet will not go away. But you can help shape it. So to all you technology resisters out there, I implore you to stop complaining and fighting the inevitable. As the old saying goes, ‘if you can’t beat em, join em’.