Any ‘likes’ for World Social Media Day?

To belittle social media or to harp solely on its perils is to miss the larger and more vital point of how much the communication process has been revolutionized and catapulted beyond recognition. (Photo by William Fortunato via Pexels)

On World Social Media Day, June 30, social media is all set to explode. Not as a tribute but because that is what social media does on any given day: explode. Though the origin of social media remains fuzzy, now that it is here there is no remembering the ‘pre’ days. It was in 2010 that Mashable, a digital media platform, started a special day for social media, to give the phenomenon its due. Was there life on this planet pre-FB? A time the virtual world did not exist? Apparently, there was.

Yes, there was a time when we had to go over physically to a place – the marketplace or a stage – to air our views. Where would we be without Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube – not to mention all those websites where we register our righteous anger? Being a law-abiding citizen by day and a vicious troll by night – it is possible to be Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde only thanks to SM.

It is with great diffidence that we mention trunk calls and STD calls, landlines and telegrams, because then tedious footnotes must follow, with Gen Z and Gen Alpha listening with wide-eyed boredom to the mechanics of a prehistoric era. Can we compare the appearance of a postman making our heart skip during an infatuated youth to the faint ping of the phone? The crowning joy of a slumber party used to be dialling that boy to have an anonymous chat with him and then passing him by in school the next day with a straight face. Such innocent pleasure – compared to matching with someone on Tinder, Bumble, Hinge or Raya!

There is only one way to reveal your age – by revealing how you speak and where. Everyone has his or her own way of keeping in touch with the rest of the world. Without Wi-Fi, an average person may as well be on a desert island! Searching for signal is a universal preoccupation; there is no greater isolation than being cut off from the internet.

But to belittle social media or to harp solely on its perils is to miss the larger and more vital point of how much the communication process has been revolutionized and catapulted beyond recognition. As Mike DeLorenzo, NHL social media marketing director, had put it: ‘Social networks aren’t about websites. They’re about experiences.’

The thing about progress is that it never looks over its shoulder; instead, it cartwheels ahead, with mankind quickly adapting to newer innovations. And as such it is difficult to chronicle the good, bad and ugly as there's no sitting back to take stock. It is all we can do to keep up; it takes all our smarts to stay on course, to understand and to utilize. Advantages and disadvantages morph and merge till all we know is we cannot, simply cannot, do without our iPhone or Netflix. Where then is it all headed? No one knows and no one cares.

Everyone is connected to everyone. And that’s all that matters.