Have you ever looked around ad realized how similar people look these days, or act or talk or even how similar the way they laugh or cry? It is almost like we have closed ourselves to our real identities and live our life according to the wants of others. As a high school student sometimes it frightens me to see that people are losing their originality. Then, I said how can they be original if they live in a fake world.
A fake world is created by a bunch of apps which you cannot see anything related to the real world or real life. This world is called social media, and it poisons everyone that lives on it. The first time I realized how big this issue was wasn't the times I read about hundreds of articles written about this topic or the countless podcasts that talk about this. I realized this when I became aware that nobody did anything but talk or write about this. It is almost like these people talk about how awful effects social media has, especially on the youth, then post this content on their social media to attract attention. I am not one of those people. When I realized the effects on my life I immediately closed my social media account and started a new life.
So, let's start with my journey. I had a social media account for too long, yet I haven't used it for almost three years. With the start of summer I created a new account mostly because I was bored. My screen time started to increase significantly, and this started to scare me because I did not want to be a social media addict. I kept it open until the beginning of 2024, then, with the help of an amazing book called "Deep Work", I decided to close it and I did. This is when I realized that I had become a pawn of the modern world with the help of social media.
Yes, like many others will say it was connecting me to the world but the world it connected did not look like the actual world. This world had a lot of pink, lot of mercy, lot of fun, lot of clothes, lot of beauty, lot of dance in it almost like a Disney cartoon but it wasn't real. However, when I looked at the actual world, I didn't see very heart-warming things, but this world was stronger. I saw hunger, wars, fear, and love. Most importantly I saw hope and resilience and true values to live by, such as family, patriotism, self-exploration, and much more.
In defense of my harsh words, many say that in the 70s or 80s people were very passionate about fashion and trends like today as well. However, there is a small difference they have missed: right now this popular culture does not only affect our physical appearance but it affects our views, and feelings. In the old times the most common places to hear about others' opinion and thoughts were radios, newspapers, or books. Today we see people live inside the opinions of other people. For example, some people think that acting "cool" is being rude or treating people badly. Then, these people post these unhealthy opinions on every platform in every different format: edit, post, tweet...so many people see these types of content, and this affects their beliefs and perspectives. Just like a pawn who listens to the queen, they get dragged where queen wants them to go. Do not be a pawn because there are many colours in the real world, in comparison to the chess board.
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