Food For Thought #2 : Social Media

Isn't it ironic?

I remember what was my first ever contact with social media. Being a kid from '97, a computer, never mind an Internet connection was a luxury that not many could really afford. So, I was not exposed to a computer till I was 7 which is relatively late considering kids these days have access to IPads from the early ages of 4.

My uncle had a computer too but unlike me, had an Internet connection. This puzzled me as a child because there were things like Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox which was all Greek to me as I was playing Pinball and Paint back home in what I thought was the pinnacle of mankind's achievements. So, naturally I had a peek around and saw a browser that was left unclosed and unattended. It was bright blue and had a logo at the top left corner.

It spelled out of course, Friendster.


I found out it was my cousin's account I was looking at. Back then, it was mostly used as a platform to share musical talents to a larger global audience. That didn't interest me as much but what interested me was the comments section and the follow button in Friendster. These were real people interacting with my cousin at real time which blew my mind as a kid. I used to only meet my friends at school and then every other form of interaction was through the house phone on the top floor in my house.

So naturally, I created an account along with an email account which was also a new concept to me. I can still remember the nice empty home page I had after first creating a Friendster account. But even then, I barely used it with the lack of Internet connection at home. But, it was the first taste of social media and I was eager for more.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat all followed suit eventually as years passed with it being a more than worthy successor to Friendster. Social media has definitely shaped the way I lived in the past half a decade or so as I have learnt to live alongside it and embracing it as not just a supplementary hobby but a way of life. It is a permanent fixture in my imaginary daily to-do list from the second I wake up to the final seconds of the day before I lay my weary head onto the soft pillow for my daily slumber.

If social media could shape me then I am willing to bet on my life that it has truly shaped the world , for better or worse.

If there is one thing that social media has proven, it is the human nature to always stay connected to one another. Humans will forever strive to foster a certain type of relationship with their own kind in some way. We are after all, a fully functioning living being equipped with the ability to speak in audible and understandable sounds. And we'll be damned if we don't used that gift to the fullest.
For me, social media was designed to connect with my friends when I can't meet them upright. That simple purpose quickly morphed into branches of purposes , far from my expectation as a young 10 year old kid. Facebook taught me on the social imprint online games can have with yours truly playing games such as Restaurant City and Farmville intensely competing with my fellow Facebook friends.

But then, I got bored and Facebook posts got repetitive and annoying really quickly. I found Twitter pretty soon after. It is my number one social media app right now for a good 3 years now. It is basically Facebook, only slicker, smoother and so much better looking. Snapchat and Instagram came to me soon just when my fascination with girls arose. These two apps obviously fanned the flames of curiosity and fed my growing hormones in my body at the time. Perfect timing indeed.

As years go by, I seem to get surprised very easily at the ever-moving changes in our world. Social media has changed so much since I was a kid. The more obvious ones are it being a tool to deliver news.

As a kid, I read the newspaper a lot. I would have gotten the news there and then and nowhere else. My only social media then was Facebook and that was an outlet where its sole purpose was to play online games. But now, news seem to spread like wildfire on all social media platforms in mere seconds after it occurs.

I find myself reading the newspaper at a much lower rate which would have been unheard during my young days. Twitter has been the main and by far the best source for news in my daily life. Unlike the newspaper, there will be virtually no time delay in releasing breaking news. A decade ago, I had to wait around 8 or more hours to acquire a football score. Fast forward to the present, I can receive live text commentary on Twitter which reduces the suspense level which I had as a kid before going to sleep and opening the pages of the newspaper on the next day. It's fucking amazing, really.

Damn.

Making money. Those two words that bring me a bittersweet feeling. Who doesn't enjoy having money? I can never have enough money because I don't have much at all to begin with. Yet, the term 'making' suggests that effort is needed in acquiring the sweet moolah. And it is definitely true. I can tell you firsthand being a guy who worked in 3 jobs over a span of 6 months that working is no walk in the park. The sole reason in me surviving those 6 months were the thought of that paycheck at the end of the month.

Thus, to my utter surprise, people of my age and similarly to me, lack of any qualifications can earn bucket loads of ringgit notes in doing nearly fuck all. Instagram is the main platform for this. Basically, big and small companies search for really popular Instagram accounts (100K followers and over) and ask them to post a picture of them advertising how they fucking adore their products in exchange for money. Now, small companies selling cosmetics and clothes are the big dogs in this online industry. Their beneficiaries? Mostly girls from ages of 16 to 24 who have amassed thousands of followers due to their good looks and sexy bodies.

I want to make it clear that I have nothing against these Instagram ''entrepreneurs'' . Fuck, if I were in their shoes, I would do the same thing. Yet, it is just so mind-boggling how social media can provide a way of making money in a relatively simple manner. All you need to do is snap a picture of yourself with a sponsored product and type down probably 20 words praising the shit out of it. That's it. You don't even need a good grasp in English grammar. I've seen many grammatical errors on these kind of posts. Yes, I follow these girls too. Guilty as charged.

And I digress. I am pretty jealous of them. I could do what they do. I probably won't get paid by anyone but post a picture? Oh please, my 3 year old nephew could do that. Unfortunately, I was not at all blessed with the good looks that befall on these very people. And that is how crazy this world has become. People with minimal effort could make money than people who work their asses off for much longer hours. The shelf life for this career path is understandably short but the rewards are ridiculous.

                                       The irony is getting more real.                                     

There is something strange about social media. It is truly an enigma. As I said earlier, social media has kept us humans connected in a way that people never need to look at a human face ever again. Distances are no longer barriers for communication. Yet, it seems like social media has engulfed the human kind completely at times. I meet people for the occasional mamak drinks on a regular basis. It's always nice to have a chat with someone without looking at a fucking screen. You can see the emotions being displayed on the faces of people you are close with. But, social media has changed us to a point where people now use social media even when in the presence of people they are socializing with.

Do we still call it a bridge of communication still? Or is it now an object of fame and a necessity to not be left behind? It is hard to say.

I have met great people of whom I will certainly not have met if I did not use social media. Yet, with the good , there will be the bad. Keyboard warriors are a toxic bunch at times and they are a breed of human beings that I'll be happy to be rid of. I respect their opinion but it doesn't change how they phrase it to be needlessly offensive and downright stupid. Cancerous bunch of people.

People change. They really do. Change can be either good or bad. But social media does something to people that it is really mystifying. Especially fame on social media. Fame is subjective, of course. But there seems to be a mentality, especially on Twitter and Instagram where a certain bar of a number of followers certifies a person to be famous. Fame can cause people to act differently . Some take it at their stride. But some get fame and go over their head. You can see it in their everyday actions. A whole new different person. Trying to impress people you haven't met with stuff you haven't accomplished yet. And when it's all over, earth isn't a soft place to land on.

Back to the present day, I wonder how was life like without social media? I shaped my life to fit social media in it and not the other way around. Without it, a hole would surely be present in my imaginary daily planner. Yet, I didn't feel that way back in 2008. The feeling of not giving a fuck was a great one. As they say, ignorance is bliss.

An alternate timeline would have emerged. Food for thought.