SOCIAL MEDIA | INTERNET | HUMAN RESOURCE

No! We Can’t All be Online

Is it bad that I just realized the downside of social media?

Is it bad that I just realized the downside of social media?

Or is it even worse that I can not do anything about it?

We can’t all be online. That’s a fact. But then, what do I mean?

I’ll begin arranging my frustration by hailing technology.

Since its inception, social media has opened so many doors and created spectrums to which the thoughts of mere inter-relationships and communications can not be comprehended.

A typical example:

In 2019, I and my high school friends embarked on an operation to find one of our old friends whom we all presumed to be dead, as no one knew where she was or had her social media since high school.

After so much amateur CIA internet fiasco, we got a lead on her existence, turns out she was alive, and used her social media accounts frequently. Most especially, she was internet-averse.

She doesn’t want to be online? Eeew, I thought at the time. Now I respect and adore such folks.

The fact that we could find her through social media is a testament to the excellence of its design, but now my major pain and the downsides.

My Major Pain and The Downsides

Without a sign of any silver lining, my initial thoughts of gold about social media and the internet slowly became a major pain.

Meanwhile!

As per The Datareporter: the world spends close to 12 billion hours using social media platforms every single day. That’s a hell of a time if you ask me.

Also,

With an increase of 2.4 billion to more than 3.4 billion users across the world, social media platforms like Facebook confirm that one in three people are on the internet. — Esteban Ortiz

Those numbers explain the cause of my pain. Which is based on the fact that many people have imagined it to be the norm.

There is so much number of people getting glued to little screens and semi-sized screens that they now deem it fit to be the norm in society.

Now!

• You might be called a freak if you are not on social media.
• It becomes worse if you use it but do it without anyone noticing that you do. You get tagged as internet averse or a passive user. Moreso, an individual who has failed to embrace such advancement.

This is exactly the channel to which a different spectrum of its downsides has developed.

1. Modern Stereotyping

Stereotyping used to be the norm and a well-publicized act, before the recent awareness.

We can not forget the more than 100+ years that black Americans have suffered from several racial stereotypes some showed in the slavery era of the 17th to 18th centuries and the civil rights movement 1950s to the 1960s.

Ditto! The stereotypes faced by white people, with thoughts that they automatically lack resilience, are racially insensitive, or are privileged.

This piece of work even says that it is hard to think of a stereotype for white people. That alone is a stereotype.

Despite the awareness of the United Nations to fight racial stereotypes and other present dimensions, a new and looming stereotype is occurring.

It goes thus… ‘how many followers do you have?’

If you dare call a meager number, then you are thought to be less successful or not tech-savvy.

If you do not get it by now, then you are probably more than 40. You might not know it, but children in junior and high school are facing huge depression from this issue.

2. Human without resources management

In case you haven’t heard, the creation of human resources is mainly to make organizations get more from their workers, it’s not really about the mumbo-jumbo of helping them enjoy work. No! It’s the opposite.

How true is that, I wouldn’t know. But that was what a senior colleague told me when I still worked in construction.

Today I see it happening myself. Even in content writing. It is now the norm for HRs to ask if you have a LinkedIn account.

Some of them might need your engagement to boost their companies in case you get employed. Others have taken it as a must-have for applicants disguised as portfolios or Online CVs.

Again!! We can’t all be online.

This is a crazy downside and disadvantage for folks who do not like to live a life of lies and trend-pleasing on the internet. Of course, it’s a plus for content writers and other creative professionals as you get to show people what you can do.

But ain’t it mostly lies?

Where is the persona in all of these, HR managers? Getting to meet the individual and know their actual skills. We can’t all be online.

To end with

Sadly, the worst downside that I have thought of is economic/societal leaders using social media or the internet as a form of informal governance to give non-coercive instructions and trends to society through influencers or people with a huge following.

Finally!

• Take heed, psycho. Not all individuals with less following or engagements on social media are introverts, unsuccessful, or tech illiterate.
• Take heed, employer/HR. Not all applicants without a LinkedIn account or frequent engagement are unskilled.
• Take heed, influencer. If we were all online and focused on it, you wouldn’t have anyone to influence.