“Ping!” I have a new message on Facebook. I am taken aback. I am not one of those “hip” people who receive texts or instant messages at all times of the day. I quickly check my phone, imagining all kinds of crisis scenario that may have prompted someone to IM me in the middle of a workday. “Pushpita, can you like my profile picture?” I blink and read the message twice just to be sure. There is no emergency. My house is not on fire. It’s just my young cousin asking me to “like” her profile picture on Facebook.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in school now?” I type back. “Yeah! Duh! It’s lunch break so I thought I would use the time to change my profile picture with one from last night’s party. I shouldn’t have done it at this time. No one’s online. Only five likes so far. Do I look fat in this picture?” – comes the rapid fire response.
So, over the next 10 minutes, and to the great amusement of my bullpen-colleagues, I assure my cousin that no, she doesn’t look fat or ugly in her profile picture, and yes, she is still as popular as ever.
I wisely refrain from asking how she has managed to sneak in a mobile phone into school. To my teenage cousin, I am already someone who belongs to that amorphous generation of “uncool” mid-20s people who don’t believe life revolves around social networking. Telling her off for Facebooking in school would surely relegate me to the ranks of our grandparents in her eyes.
Nowadays, social media reign supreme in our lives. Unfortunately, for our society, my cousin is not alone in her unhealthy obsession with Facebook. Millions of teenagers around the world spend hours every day culturing their online persona, which, more often than not, vastly differs from their offline selves.
It is mortally important for teens to appear “sexy,” “cool,” “trendy” or “funny” across virtual platforms. As such, through a gazillion banal status updates, photo uploads, likes, and shares, they carefully and methodically nurture an online visage that portrays them as the “cool dude” or the “hot girl” on the block. Teenage behaviour trends on social media borders on unhealthily obsessive and compulsive.
When out on a dinner with family or friends, most teens would spend the entire time checking-in on Facebook, Instagramming pictures of the meal, and taking selfies, all the while holding several conversations on Viber and WhatsApp.
It appears as though Facebook is turning the young generation into desensitised zombies who would rather stay up late and like meaningless cat videos than read a book. Adolescents today seem obsessed with recording, documenting, and sharing almost every aspect of their everyday lives in a supreme effort to distinguish themselves and their lives from that of the million others.
This unhealthy preoccupation with social media is not limited to teens alone. Although the effect is more readily visible within the younger generation, adults too are victims of acute peer pressure on social networking sites. A new research published in the journal “Social Influence” concluded that a lack of social participation on Facebook leads to people feeling less important. Furthermore, the less reaction people get on statuses and photographs, the more excluded and invisible they feel.
Social media shunning can even lead to lower self-esteem and a sense of loss of control. The findings ring true for both teens and adults.
As proven in the case of my cousin, less likes or comments on a photograph leads us to question our popularity and desirability. This phenomenon is particularly intense among young girls and women, who are taught from childhood to base their self-worth on the physical manifestation of their beauty. On the other hand, greater positive response on social media leads us to exhibit narcissistic personality traits and develop a false sense of grandeur.
In fact, the influence of social media acceptance on our psyche is so profound that, despite the widespread demand for it, Facebook and co refuses to introduce the “dislike” button in fear that it may promote hatefulness, negativity, and anti-social behaviour among users.
I often wonder at the power the “like” and “share” buttons exert on Facebook users. Teens and adults alike rely heavily on these two buttons to fulfil their social obligations. Liking someone’s “I am feeling unwell” status somehow mentally exempts us from having to call him and ask after his health. Sharing pictures of brutalities in Gaza help us sleep peacefully at night. Liking a scripture or even the photograph of a god or goddess makes us feel pious and devoted.
Active Facebook users blindly like and share posts that appear on their newsfeed, most of the time without reading or understanding their purposed meaning. This indiscriminate like and share reflex to posts validates in our mind the inordinate amount of time we spend on Facebook by engendering a sense of meaningful social intervention. There is rarely any constructive debate on Facebook as people are most often satisfied with “liking” a particular issue and are generally disinclined to think or act on it beyond the sphere of the social media.
It is undeniable that social media like Facebook is a powerful, empowering tool. It allows users to reach out and interact across borders. It has transcended private use and become an important instrument for business communication.
In Bangladesh, public officials are using Facebook to communicate with their constituents. Studies have revealed that social media has played a key role in shaping the Arab Spring uprisings. Nevertheless, we should cautiously view platforms like Facebook as an enabler of social communication and development, and prevent it from being the contrivance that inhibits social cognitive processes in young people and adults.