-Shantnu Bansal (IBS Hyderabad, Batch of 2020-22)
As kids, like we used to struggle with walking, cycling, eating and every other task, uncanny resemblance can be observed when we see our parents encountering with social media, texting, cell phones and the internet. This in return aims to bring out the mockery on Gen Z since we tend to think how difficult can it be to grasp such basic things. And being the generation with the thinnest patience, we give up on them, unlike our parents. They are on the verge of tossing the gadget on the ground and scratching their head in annoyance.
But why have we hooked on social media now? Before its introduction too, people used to breathe, earth used to rotate and plants continued to grow.
Is it may be the societies demand it or are we too interested in other people’s lives?
Whether social media and the internet are making the world bigger or smaller is quite debatable and some like to believe both, but it surely is making the world a better and a faster place to live in.
How the World has Actually Become Bigger?
Internet is like a world within a world, with its separate laws, governance and functions. It has the tendency to become a workplace, an exhibition and a gallery, a stadium, a meeting board room and what not.
People here are invested emotionally, psychologically, socially and financially. There is no reason to think different of the internet rather than a virtual world interlinked via wires and cables.
Inexhaustive facts and figures
All the information in the world is available at one tap. Even the sources of data prefer to publish their work on the virtual world and make it useable for everyone rather than printing it on the form of paper or a book and let it rot in libraries for ages.
Fun fact: Over 3 million terabytes of data on the internet exists in the form of information.
A New World Order in the Making
The ‘internet-reality’ (as some scholars call it) has created a lot of distances, while it has bridged others. In this regard, the popular influence of social media is an area of special interest for many researchers.
Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are well-known, today, for creating ‘thought bubbles.’ These are imaginary and creative fields of fixed ideas; occupied by people who become their staunch defenders. And who maintain an almost religious devotion to their continued maintenance.
A New World Order in the Making
The ‘internet-reality’ (as some scholars call it) has created a lot of distances, while it has bridged others. In this regard, the popular influence of social media is an area of special interest for many researchers.
Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are well-known, today, for creating ‘thought bubbles.’ These are imaginary and creative fields of fixed ideas; occupied by people who become their staunch defenders. And who maintain an almost religious devotion to their continued maintenance.
Business & Communication
Managing businesses, acquiring clients, delivering promises and assigning tasks to employees is no more a hassle. There are innumerous tools available to do them quickly, easily, accurately and cheaply. It can be done in any geographic areas of the world.
Large Audience & Common Interests
One can come across likeminded people every day on the social media, form communities and depict their talents and skills to those inclined towards such activities. It provides them with great exposure and helps feel good about one.
Audience and users from even the third world countries unite and share this platform and live as if there are no boundaries between them.
Stay Connected
Video call, voice call and text messages have enabled people to measure distance not in terms of kilometers but from one mobile application to another. One doesn’t need to travel any distance for buying, selling, reading or learning. It is literally in the hands of the people and the users.
Pandemic and the Social Media
The virus changed the way we internet. With calling off of all the public gatherings to maintain social distancing, people started seeking out entertainment on the web and looked to connect with each other on the social media outlets.
If on one hand, it has been a person’s “better half” during the nationwide lockdown, on the other, it has been the harbinger of bad or fake news to create anxiety among the masses due to which people preferred to “distance” themselves from the use of internet as well.
Conclusion
Whether bigger or smaller, technology has changed our life for good and we are so much thankful to its developers that we aren’t even to the developer of this world.
Different people use them for different purposes and thus, the difference in opinion. It is a ‘6’ from one angle and a ‘9’ from the other, which doesn’t make any one side superior or inferior.
References: https://www.technobyet.com/how-social-media-texting-cell-phones-and-the-internet-make-the-world-bigger/
aashima aggarwal
Informative