Shouldn’t social media be the perfect place to debate social, political and spiritual issues? Since it’s a social no-no to talk about sex, religion and politics at the dinner table,? surely you can vent it all on the Internet, right? Maybe not.
According to studies done by Pew Charitable Research and Rutgers University, sites like Facebook, Twitter, My Space, and You Tube actually hinders debate. In fact, these studies suggests social media websites silences public opinion all together, especially if it goes against the crowd. What’s happening is that in social media, just like in the real world, we surround ourselves and friend ourselves with people just like us. And we want to remain in good standing with our friends and followers, so we don’t dare post anything that could be looked at as different, challenging, or controversial. But they’re more complex issues behind this kind of online conformity. Twitter just said it will allow anyone to read your tweets, whether they’re followers or not. Facebook says it will hide certain stories. It’s well known employers, landlords, and other authority figures can and often do check peoples’ social media sites. Then there is the social epidemic of cyber bulling.? Nobody wants to be the victim of that. Not too many people want to be seen as the cyber bully either.
Social media conformity, to me, is disturbing and sad. This almost reads like jr. high or high school all over again. How many people fought and died for the right to speak our mind, no matter how unpopular it is, so long as we don’t put anyone in harm’s way. If you’re uncomfortable with what he/she said, just un-friend or dis-follow them. Crackdowns on certain social media sited aren’t helping. I have been long against employers checking social media pages as some litmus test if someone gets hired or fired. And as far as cyber bulling as concerned, please, let’s be disagreeable, but respectable about it. I know it’s cool to many to people to see how many likes they can get, but isn’t that falling into a popularity contest? Shouldn’t we make social media a place where all ideas are heard and respected, not just those that are conforming, cool and popular?