5 Ohh’s and 5 Oops of Social Media

2016 Jul 4

by Azraa Killru

Nope. This is not about criticizing social media. Let’s be honest. Without it, you may never even have come across this article in the first place. I am just going to be sharing a few bits and pieces of a Lankan’s social media antics on a day by day basis.

1. You are literally dying of hunger. The restaurant is taking their own good time preparing your order. And then finally the aroma of your foodwafts across the room. You’re growling stomach purrs in ecstasy. But hey no, WAIT! Stop right there. Either your companion or your uncontrollable tendency to grab your phone and capture an image of your food has to be dealt with first and foremost. Then you need to upload it on Facebook, Instagram or even share it among group chats. Of course, the check ins can’t be neglected either. And the tags. Wait, one more thing I missed – the hashtags should be included as well.Then comes another issue. If it’s Lankan food, spelling the meal right in Singlish is one major problem. Kiribath is going to be pretty easy to type but kurakkanpittuwith polossambo is going to be a bit of a challenge. But we try anyway.

2. Hashtag torture is a common irritation you may encounter on your news feed, where people love to express whole sentences squeezed onto one hashtag or they come up with creative division of a single idea. Mindboggling innovative phrases they are! They have successfully revolutionized the concept of hashtags, which was initiated to connect with a specific topic.

3. ‘’Let’s go to war with our opinions” is apparently a beloved entertainment for many social media users. The battle of opinions begin with a post, which leads to the passing of negative game ball back and forth until it actually stirs up issues that were non-existent in the first place. While two or few people are arguing with the use of caps locks, slang and sometimes, vulgar language, the rest enjoys a gala time with zero cost entertainment.

4. Overwhelming need to network has culminated in a generation that is keen on including every single person they have ever spoken to, on their social media. Privacy is disregarded and it is not very rare to hear about misuse of pictures or personal information. The point is, you may love to share each and every significant and insignificant event in your life but not many give a thought to who are they sharing it with.
5. Obsessed with your smartphone, iPad, and computer? Hear it often? Then you are definitely one of those who may not freak out over an earthquake alert as much as when your device screams battery low! It seems like our lifeline. With it we can take over the world and without it not even visit the restroom. It becomes a distraction, hindering your everyday activities and deviating you from focusing on what’s more important in life. Be it work, studies or giving the time of your day to your loved ones, social media acts as a foe in the outfit of a friend.

But there is another side too.

1. Access to necessary and timely information is a great advantage the internet and particularly social media has offered us with. This was evident during the flood relief period our country faced in May. Instant information of people trapped in flooded areas facilitated the evacuation process. Donors and charitable organizations were able to collaborate with the general public. This would not have been possible without people updating and tweeting information around Colombo suburbs.

3. Crying over a family member flying abroad or old school friends losing contact are things of the past now. Not one, not two, but multiple means of staying in touch in real time is not a benefit that can be overlooked. Even a developing country like Sri Lanka is not lagging behind in terms of the use of social media.

4. Business marketing and the availability of product and service information being just a click away makes life very easy. You could be updated on offers and promotions flooding your feed. Reviews and other customer comments on the relevant business pages alert you on how good the product and service quality is likely to be.

5. Stalking people is definitely not a cool thing to be talking about and there are serious instances and chaotic cases why this should be discouraged because really creepy people tend to get gratified by stalking. But hey, a little bit of checking out someone’s profiles with a harmless intent is not something unheard of. This becomes very useful in fact to try to at least get a glimpse of the person you are socializing with (although there are too many fake details lying around). But some information is better than no information.

6. It also acts as a platform for learning. Be it an idea, an inspiration or even awareness of events and programmes happening around you, it offers you with new things to be interested in. You learn these by the people you follow who are more than happy to share with their network about what their on about right now.