Social media: The Grand Delusion - A paradox or subtle destruction.

The internet changes over time. That the technology that comes with it has evolved is obvious. But how we use the internet is also changing. So we have two conceptual distinctions — technology and people — that we frequently conflate into one idea of the internet. This post is more about a tool driven by the internet and an attempt at tearing apart the objective and subjective dimensions of social media, and bringing to fore the high level of delusion that comes with this platform.

There could be various categories of people based on social media: There are those who thrive on it and those who don’t. One can easily pick them out by just a glance at their profile. A thriving person would have well over 3000 friends, frequent status updates, some as mundane as “do not disturb”, “starving”, “Feeling funky” and that will attract a lot of likes and also likes and comments on their hundreds if not thousands of photos. For the other party, they hardly get to update their status, upload photos or do anything other than liking other people.

Now it’s easy to see how the thriving party sees life. To them, whatever their real life is, they can ignore it and have fun with friends on social media. In real life these people are more likely to be introverts, but have a view about life that lets them be happy about it and that happiness is obtained from their interactions and existence on the social media. These people have come to accept the social media as the real world, a form of escape from life’s realities, to them, they have suddenly migrated to a new found planet: The tenth planet, where they are having fun, keep having fun, keep wasting time, keep being busy, in short keep thriving on.

How many times have you encountered someone that you have known in “real life” for years on a social network, only to find that they are a completely different person on Facebook, Youtube or Twitter?  What accounts for this disparity?

We’ve gotten so carried away by the buzz and glam that the social media presents, that we’ve practically lost touch with reality. There’s so much ‘’Super-heroism’’ going on in the social media, that a lot of people have easily swapped the real world we live in, to exist in this mind-created state of Utopia or El Dorado.

A lot of us go out to seek, validation, love, and acceptance of the self-created social status that we have built for ourselves. Don’t get me wrong, I have met some wonderful people in real life, who are no different from who they are on the social media, just like I’ve met some very wonderful people via social media, who turned out to who they represent on these platforms. I’ve also met ‘fraudsters’ and crooks on all here, who find the social media as a bounty-hunting platform.

I don’t have a problem with the use of social media for ‘’Image-validation’’ if indeed this effort eventually reflects in our real lives. It’s very much in order.

The tweet that motivated this article reads:

‘’It seems Twitter mentions & retweets, Instagram 'likes' & Facebook comments & 'likes' have become people's barometer for measuring self-worth’’ - @CrackBerryJunki 

The second one from Facebook reads:

Nkenim Nkanta Wrote: ‘’Life on Facebook is so easy and blissful...
...I mean Many folks on here are either a pastors, Ideal lovers, marriage/relationship counselors, ideal husbands/wives, perfectionist, rich, motivators, spotless creatures, ideal friends, Miss/Mr. faithfulness, you name it.
I am really sure all this bad people in the real world are not on Facebook’’.

We see all sorts out here on the social media. If you really want to know how deluded folks can be check out a twit fight on twitter. You’ll see stuff like: ‘’Imagine you’re insulting me here with your 10 followers’’ and you go through the profile of the person tweeting, you find out he has just a little over 100 followers and he is already feeling like a twitter super-hero. (I wonder what he wants Justin Bieber, who has over 40 million followers to say). It’s easy to get carried away by the number of people who like our statuses, pictures, the comments we get, the number of virtual friends and followers cum ‘’disciples’’ we have on these platforms, (Over 90% of whom we don’t even know) etc. On this tenth planet, It’s common place to see ‘’Big time executives, folks who drive super automobiles, Travel the world and check into the most exotic holiday destinations, also big time perfect folks’’, who as far as they are concerned, don’t even fart and are on standby to condemn and cast aspersions on those of us that are not up to par, spiritually, financially, morally, you name it.

It’s easy to find people out here, who will readily tell you how to make millions online or even offline and show themselves off as gurus in this field, yet in reality, have nothing to show for the information they are dishing out. Another funny aspect is when you see teenagers and singles, dishing out marriage tips and also people who have been through failed/broken alliances, suddenly becoming life coaches, counselors, coming to teach our world how to succeed in an aspect of life they failed in and are still struggling with getting their balance back, or struggling business folks telling you how to make millions. This to me is crass hypocrisy. Like they say, ‘’Talk is cheap’’ A friend tweeted not too long ago, ‘’If your Christianity does not work for you at home, don’t export it outside its walls”.  I will only believe in you and listen to you if I know you’ve been successful in a certain aspect of life, with results to show. It’s easy to come on the social media and make ourselves gurus. Of course I know a couple of people who are a true representation of what they put up as statuses, tweets, etc. I’m always in a hurry to align with those folks…Yes these folks abound on the social media. (I’m not against sharing some inspiration; it could help someone out there).

What am I trying to say? The earlier we all come to realize that the social media is only, but a tool (Either for reconnecting with friends/Family, keeping in touched with loved ones, or as a platform for promoting our businesses, maintaining a relationship with our clients, etc the better for us).  The social media to many is a tenth planet they live in and they so much believe it is real, so it’s easy to see people go all out to impress and build self-worth and seek approval out here. The REAL YOU AND I is not what we project behind our PCs, Laptops, Tablets, mobile devices etc. Like I said earlier, there are people who are no different from who they are on the social media, rough and nasty online and the same in the real world and equally well groomed people are not different from the real world, but the bulk of us out here have lost touch with reality, especially when we get multiple retweets, bulk status and photo comments, Instagram likes, and so on, have come to accept the social media as the real blue marble planet. The social media has presented a grand platform for the exhibition of, and display of what I term, the ‘’grand delusion’’ a paradox or subtle destruction. The truth is, we are a human society, not a planet social media….Let’s think again!