Can we live without the existence of social media?

If no, then how can we explain the fact that our ancestors managed to live a peaceful life back then? In todays society, humans obsession with social media creates a preposterous view that social media is indispensible in our lives. If we actually analyze how our ancestors lived way back in the past, through close communications and teamwork, they could easily hunt down animals for food, build houses together, and locate land for agriculture. Do all these activites require the use of social media? Hence the argument of being locked up in a dark cave and problem of isolation and loneliness without the presence of social media is nullified. In fact, social media has destroyed face-to-face social bonds, as users hide behind their computer screen while communicating with one another through incomplete sentences (typed), thus diminishing the true essence of human interaction. Jeff Jarvis, Director, Tow-Knight Centre for Entrepreneurial Journalism, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, said that Sharing is a social and generous act: it connects us, it establishes and improves relationships, it builds trust, it disarms strangers and stigmas, it fosters the wisdom of the crowd, it enables collaboration, and it empowers us to find, form and act as publics of our own making. This is a fantasised utopia. The ever increasing statistics of young intimate girls being cheated and raped by online lovers, how can this establish and improve relationship, build trust, disarm strangers and stigmas? Racial abuses, cyber-bullying among teenagers, online scams, these are not just storiesthey are realities. The tool which propelled such atrocious crimes? The answer is obvious. So much for fostering the wisdom of crowd! It can be argued that the recent Arab spring, as well as many other protests across the world, was turbocharged by social media. Social media was responsible for stimulating peoples passion and anger towards the government, hence gathering booming crowds to fight for their causes. In police states with high Internet penetration, various social media became an indigenous free press. Such revolutions had brought down authoritarian leaders down, such as Ben Ali and Mubarak. Without social media, revolutions would not be possible. Police states will forever remain as police states. There will be no hope for changes. To a human-rights group or a democratic nation, social media should be seen as a necessity. However, let us look back at the past. The fall of Hitler did not come about due to social media; at that time, facebook or twitter did not even exist. Likewise in the fall of authoritarian regimes such as those belonging to Pol pot (Cambodia) and Suharto (Indonesia), social media was non-existent back then. Thus it is erroneous to say that social media is essential in bringing about political changes to a country. Jeff Jarvis argues that the amplifying effects of social media encourage unconventional thinking to spread. Heres the question, is this a boon or a bane? As the U.S military forces continues in their eternal war against transnational terrorism, spending millions of dollars on the process, transnational terrorism still exist today. Why? Radical Leaders such as Osama Bin Laden exploited the social media to spread false idealisms about Islam, recruiting more members into al Qaeda to replace those who were killed. So how is spreading unconventional thinking beneficial to the society? As I researched on the benefits of social media, most sites agreed upon one answer: increasing business sales. Behind the falsely transparent world lies a world of deception, a world of selfishness whereby entrepreneurs try to praise their products, obscure weaknesses and convince victims to

buy them. The prosaic truth is that social media exists to sell things. A Facebook page is actually many billboards, where, till date, users find their personal friends and family also pitching them goods, opinions and even policies not just from politicians but from all sorts of groups and firms and companies in the market place who have paid to present them. Youtube contains copious amounts of advertisements from various companies, as they try desperately to raise awareness of their products and services. Certainly social media has brought in confidence and hope to a group of people. For example, for hundreds of years, gay people were in the closet, isolated and alone. As soon as they started being public, other gay people realized they were not alone, and that they had allies, and a movement got started. True, Jeff Jarvis shared about his prostate cancer and malfunctioning penis online, receiving constructive feedbacks as well as inspiring many other men to be tested. Yet, these are the minority group, and do not represent the society as a whole. Likewise, inspirations through online means are sporadic. The sweeping statement of social media benefiting the entire society is definitely questionable, as we can see that social media apparently is a curse rather than a blessing. Let us remind ourselves once again. Can we live without the existence of social media?

Vocabulary: Stigma a mark of disgrace Inoculate- to infuse something into an object such that it contains resistance to a certain disease/problem. Copious abundant Stultifying to render futile/ineffectual, especially by degrading or frustrating means Ambivalent having mixed feelings about something/ being unable to choose between the two Garrulous excessively talking in a rambling manner Abrogate to abolish by formal or official means Prosaic unimaginative Insidious operating in a seemingly harmless way but actually with grave effect

Mark Yeo Tee Shen