These days, social media forms a large basis of people’s lives. In the way that they communicate, the way they keep in touch with the world and in the way they keep tabs on other peoples lives.
I feel like technology has moved quicker than our consciousness has and we aren’t emotionally equipped yet to deal with the information overload that comes with social media.
Almost every platform now has the ability for private message, thus no longer needing to trade phone numbers. With adding someone on a social media platform you have the ability to look and gain a feel for that person’s life before even deciding to communicate.
I for one have always been very hesitant to give out my phone number. I have had the same number since I was 18 and I don’t want to have to get to a point where I have given it to the wrong person, therefore having to change it. So for me, social media is a fantastic starting point. If I come across someone annoying, the block function becomes my best friend.
This has its advantages as you can begin to gauge the person’s lifestyle and interests and from there discover a common ground. The ability to view mutual friends is also another major advantage.
I personally believe that the initial start-up of a relationship via social media is a smart way to go about it. The disadvantages come later, once the relationship is flowing.
I am across pretty much every social media platform. I have made it my business to learn the capabilities of any form that I have an account attached to. This is because I am very intrigued with it all and how it is affecting society. I grew up in an era where this was non-existent. I was almost at the end of my secondary education when we first got the internet at home. Social media exploded when I was in my early twenties and I was hooked immediately. I found it utterly amazing and a fantastic way to stay in touch with friends and family.
But I also discovered that social media also has another side to it, the ever-present stalking side.
We now have the ability to access an array of information about a person and this can become detrimental to a relationship.
We are at a point in society where relationships aren’t as strong and long-lasting as they once were. This is due to the fact that we are more conscious of our own happiness and although we want to find that ONE person to spend our lives with, we are constantly striving for bigger and better things. We no longer feel the need to put up with shit because as everyone says: ‘there are plenty of fish in the sea’. If this current fish is no good, we will find another. Too often we believe that the grass is greener elsewhere and perhaps don’t put in as much effort to grow the grass in our own backyard.
For some people this will leave a string of broken relationships and a severely altered and fragile emotional state. A lot of these severed relationships end because of some form of betrayal, in many forms, on either part. This tends to fuck up the bit of the brain where trust is held allowing ill-informed or basically stupid decisions to take place. One of these stupid decisions is using social media platforms to keep tabs on or stalk your significant other.
If you are a part of the broken portion of society, you will meet someone, you will add each other on which ever social media platform you choose. Communication will flow and you will exchange numbers. The texting starts only, all of a sudden they do not reply in an acceptable amount of time. You then jump straight online and see that they are in fact online or they have been in the last few minutes. First thought is ‘mother fucker can go online but can’t reply to my text’. I wont lie and say that has never happened to me. Many times my ex boyfriend would text me in the afternoon saying sorry that he hasn’t spoken to me all day but work has been hectic. I’d only noticed that he had been online majority of the day. So you got time for that but not to see how my day is going? It is so pathetic when you think about it but that is how we have evolved because we now have access to that information so easily.
From there the stalking gets a bit deeper. Using an additional platform you start to check who’s pics they are liking and God forbid they like some random bitches selfie. You have the internal battle with yourself because you don’t want to start shit by bringing it up but you can’t help thinking WHY, why would he like that bitches selfie? The why turns into ‘they must be fucking’ because, lets face it, why else. Gone is the logical thinking. Irrationality becomes the norm.
That brings me to a very popular platform. The one with the ability to send a pic knowing it will disappear after the allocated time.
Clearly this was created with dick pics in mind. Why would you take a picture and send it to someone knowing they can only view it for a few seconds unless it is of your genitalia?
Years back when you had the ability to view people’s best friends I had a moment where I lost my shit. My ex and I would send a few pics here and there, nothing too exciting but one day I noticed that I wasn’t number one on his top friends list, another female was. I almost had a stroke when I saw it. I lost my fucking mind which ended up turning into a massive fight. He promised it was innocent but I never forgot about it.
Now with the addition of Nearby Friends on the most popular platform you can see how far away in kilometres someone is… having that ability can be so detrimental to ones mental health. I fear with future updates and a multitude of new platforms we will slowly turn into a trust-less and paranoid society even more so than what we already are.
As much as we do not want to be checking up on others, especially those we are in a romantic relationship with, it has become too easy. The temptation is one that is hard to ignore. Our choice is to either learn to ignore it or be emotionally stable enough to have complete trust in another being.
One thing is for sure, the next person I choose to be in a relationship with better have been living in a cave prior to meeting me, and not even know what the internet is if we are to have a happy and healthy relationship.
TEAM REGALIS 