THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON MY PERSONALITY (2020 TEENS CORNER ESSAY COMPETITION AWARD WINNER)

       

           South-African-born philosopher, social critic and famed writer of thought-provoking works, Mokokoma Mokhonoana observed, “People who smile while they are alone used to be called insane, until we invented smartphones and social media.” A person’s perception of reality is often said to be a result of his beliefs. In our modern society, a lot of those beliefs are formed through the media. Known as the fourth pillar of democracy, the media are such powerful tools that literally govern the direction of our actions today. They are responsible for body image and self-worth, and this is why we see several teenagers suffer from inferiority complex, thus resorting to unhealthy habits. Since we live in a society that depends on information and communication to function, the media serve as the propellers, as well as direction providers of the society. However, the media have quite a number of types and out of them all, the social media have, unarguably, become the most popular. Social media are defined as digital media or computer-based technologies that are not related to the traditional informational uses of the internet. They provide mechanisms for us to connect, communicate and interact with one another through applications such as instant messaging, chatting, social networking sites, and microblogging (Correa et al., 2013). Nonetheless, social media have varying impacts on different people; and affect our personalities – psychological characteristics – in diverse ways. In my case, social media have led to a spike in my number of acquaintanceships, a constant desire to live a better life; and a handful of anti-social behaviours. 

          Social media have caused an increase in my number of acquaintanceships. Recently, I decided to go through my list of contacts on WhatsApp. I discovered, first, that I have never met over twenty percent of my contacts. This twenty percent consisted mainly of classmates, fellow not-yet-matriculated ‘freshmen’ of the University of Ibadan. Second, if it were not for social media, I would probably not have met any of them, prior to resumption. And if that had happened, our first meeting would, probably, have been full of introductions and awkward forced conversations. The social media platform provided an avenue for us to meet, interact, socialize and even begin to select friends (consciously or unconsciously) beforehand. For those among us, me inclusive, who do not quickly make friends in real life; the platform has done us no little favour. Without this advantage, some of us would have been almost friendless in our first semester. This, then, leads to an increased level of sociality. After building a good online relationship, a time comes, when one will meet these online acquaintances in real life. The desire not to be seen as rude and totally unsocial despite the already existing friendly ties pushes one to engage in conversations, even if on a typical day, such conversations would not have taken place. 

          Furthermore, social media have made me develop a constant desire to live a better life. Top social media users, usually, reveal information about their personal lives and though some are not totally honest with this; but as should be expected, the lives people pose to live on social media are mostly enviable. On Instagram, for example, a celebrity may say something like, “I wake up every day at 6AM; lay on my bed for the next 10 minutes, organizing my thoughts. Then, I talk to my Maker, committing the day into His hands. After this, I gym for about an hour and then, I clean up, eat and go to work. When I return home at around 7PM, I shower, cook and eat. Then, I check my social media handles, update myself, and read a book. At around 11PM, I go to bed and that is ‘à demain’ for me.” Other users will of course react to this with millions of likes and comments and then, there will be those who will feel less proud of themselves because their lives are not that ‘perfect’. Howbeit, I have developed the habit of picking the good and feasible practices and inculcating them; so as to become a better version of myself. That, being, a viable form of self-development.

          However, I have not been spared from the infection with anti-social behaviours by social media. Many a time, in discussions and lectures, I find myself lacking the needed concentration. There is always the constant urge to see what the recent fuss on Twitter is about; what the latest post on Instagram is; what my Facebook groups have been up to; my latest messages and the newest status updates on WhatsApp. In conversations, once we are done with the usual “Hellos” and “How are things?”, we each pick up our gadgets and resume into worlds of our own. This reduced real-life interactions have also made me less likely to tolerate dissenting points of views. Perhaps, it was for this reason that Albert Einstein “…fear(ed) the day that technology will surpass our human interaction.”

          The impacts of social media on my personality are far-flung; ranging from the ones that make me proud to the ones that make me hide my face in shame. Social media have boosted my relationship status quo and provoked me to develop positive lifestyles that I am proud to lay claim to but not without taking a pound of flesh – an addition to my antisociality. However, since cruelty can be said to be the disadvantage of the honest man, it is to be accepted in good faith that everything that has advantages also has corresponding disadvantages and this is why, even though Mokokoma Mokhonoana’s earlier stated observation infers that social media have made us ”insane”; they have also made us “smile”. 

References

Correa T., Bachmann I., Hinsley A.W., & Gil de Zúñiga H. (2013). Personality and Social Media Use. www.researchgate.net.