So I was just scrolling through my feed like always. Then I remembered my childhood where there were barely smartphones. Facebook isn’t a thing yet and it feels like the world is such a wonderful place to live in. I remember talking to my grade school best friend over the phone while watching Naruto.. and maybe if it did happen today, we will just be chatting over messenger or some other chatting apps. What if we have the internet but there’s really no Facebook or Friendster to begin with? Will it have a big impact on how we live our lives now?
I say yes! Truth is, we rely so much on social media. That if it would be gone right now, I think we will all be lost, but at the same time would be living a normal life just the way it was before there were likes and shares. I wouldn’t lie though, social media has made our lives easier, from sharing to what’s happening right in this moment, to sharing a special moment with your friends, and your not so close friends. There probably would have less discussions and conflicts too! And who would forget about the trolls too? Maybe we will all live a peaceful life and we will all be relying to hearing the stories from the person itself rather than seeing it on a tiny screen.
And so while I was contemplating about where social media led us humans, I started to think about the stuff that would probably be different now if social media hasn’t existed.
We will all be relying on our planners or if not, our memories, for our families and friend’s birthdays. If it wouldn’t for Facebook, we would have not greeted our friends during their birthdays. It could arise to a little tampuhan if you forgot someone’s birthday *but at least you would know who really knows and remembers your birthday! :p
We wouldn’t be asking for the wifi password every time we dine out. It’s funny how we see our friends to reconnect but we almost never put down our phone’s when we’re with them. I am guilty of this sometimes! And maybe wifis wouldn’t be a big deal to everyone if social media hasn’t existed.
“Do not use social media to impress people; use it to impact people”
- DaveWillis.Org
We would all rely to big media outlets for credible news. And probably, all of us wouldn’t have to verify if the source is credible or not! Let’s not begin with talking about trolls because we would be talking for forever by then. But let us discuss on how satire websites can change our lives. I don’t know what actually are the motives of fake websites but I think without social media, they won’t be successful enough in spreading malicious lies around the world wide web. Yes, they could exist because internet’s still there but I think they will have a hard time convincing the masses of their false journalism. Mocha Uson probably wouldn’t have a big number of followers.
And since we all rely to credible news, we will have to love reading newspapers for fresh news.
Photos will still be printed most of the time because there’s no venue to share it with other than by putting it in the classic photo album.. or picture frame then show it to someone. No more likes or instant shares.
And we would probably only know something new about the person if we actually meet them in person! (well, there’s a telephone, but you get the point)
The word “friends” would actually mean real life friends.
We will have more intimate gatherings because this is the only venue where we’ll be able to catch up with each other. We can have a photo taken at an iPhone but that just about it. No more sharing.
Marketing would probably be different.. Brands wouldn’t ask us to like their pages or post for something free from them. Influencers would have a hard time connecting to people.
We could have different leaders right now, and we could have prefer other brands instead of the one we are using right now.
We would appreciate our surroundings more. We would be more captivated by scenery.
We wouldn’t think too much on which filter to use!
Less distraction.
We would probably be more productive. (Depends on how we use social media),
And lastly, we would probably be watching TVs right now instead of reading this blog post. You probably saw this post over facebook so if it doesn’t exist, this post wouldn’t reach you, right? We would have a longer family time and less internet time.
Overall, social media has pros and cons. I cannot list it all down because I know I am not the right person to do that as I am not an expert about social media. Sure, we get a lot of pros, but hopefully the cons doesn’t have a great impact on us.These are just my assumptions and the product of my imagination. And if there’s anyone who could know if social media’s effect on you is good or bad, it is yourself. If you have anything else to add on the list, feel free to hit up the comments.
So how about you, does the nonexistence of social media have a big impact in your life? Tell me in the comment section below! :)
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