The Naughty Nasty Side of Social Media.

It's been too long I haven't write about something without twirling the meaning of it. Well, this time is because I'm tired of things that happen in unreal world affect the act of people in real world.

I'm talking about what 32% of Indonesia population are consuming. Social media.

I'm not going to give any lecturer on what is social media, which one is the strongest, and how to use it like I normally do on daily basis.
I just want to share my thought on how it's really affecting the mental health of it's user.

Let's start with how weird it is when we found out that our parents started creating their profile on one of the social media platform. Our initial thought must be: damn, what are they doing? Now they can see all my activities (sometimes nudities). Ya, aside from we feel that our 'personal' space is disturbed by their presence there, we never really thought on what social media can affect them and twisting the way they think.

We never thought on how a parent that's on social media and consume all content in it can influence a 12 year old kid to bitching and swearing about Jakarta's previous governor just because he's not part of the majority. Do you think the kid can have that kind of mindset themselves?

We never thought on how one post can make thousands of people gathered at the center of Jakarta, starting with praying together (which now I'm not really sure what was that all about), and ended up with some sort of anarchy. And not to mention, questioning on the capability of the president. See why I'm not sure about what was that all about?

We never thought that a platform that supposed to connect people with people, connect people with the news from all over the world, can bring so much hatred and chaotic.

Fans attacking the enemy of their favorite celebrity with an awful hurtful comment. Friends made memes about the other friends and share it is social media for fun - to what they don't know, the person that they made fun about are crying behind the closet feeling embarrassed.

I, personally, never thought that I'm, sometimes, scared of reading or even opening social media these days, just because I'm scared that whatever I will see will make me vulnerable. Live suicide, attacking people's believe, even attacking our own friend because they not share the same value or believe with us.

Now, we're going to get a little more personal.

I once dated a guy who can't let his phone down even when we had a date or when we cuddled. And that's very disturbing. I sometimes feel the unreal world is more important than me, a real person that sit in front of him or sleep beside him. I understand that it might not be his intention to made me feel so, but still. He made the impression that what was happening out there that captured in his phone are more interesting than my existence.
The next thing I know is we were arguing about that and things never going to be the same because I already griped that on my mind.

Or how when we broke up, for the first few months I'm scared on opening my social media page, because I'm afraid that I will see something that will makes me hurt. It's developed insecurity and anxiety on my mind. That somehow leads to trouble sleeping. And with trouble sleeping, it was affecting my physique health and my work performance.

The unhealthy result that begins from unhealthy mind.

Whatever the reason are, I don't know if it's just me, but somehow I think social media has damaging our mental health. Hatred, hurtful words, insecurity and anxiety, and a lot of other mental illness that's not healthy for the balance of one's sanity.

I wonder if we can go back to internet era around 2007 (I know we can't), where all social media activities are just sharing photos and updating status. Not spreading hatred, masking personality, and try to impress other people/group.
Where discussion, laughter, shouts, and love are based on real world. On what's served on the table.

I know that this is just the bad side of social media, but it's started to worry me. Now, starting with myself, I will clean up my social media and cut off people/account that will cause risk on my mental health. Share things that (hopefully) can put a smile on others who see it. It's just a start - I know I can't change the world, but at least people around me would't have additional hypocrite on their digital life.

And hopefully I can start to heal my disappointment on social media these days. Which I hope that you can too.