Social media vs reality

Since the inception of man on earth, there has always been a cause for man to engage and interact with his co-beings. Little wonder God created Eve from man to allow him enjoy the merriment of companionship. As time went on, so was the increase in man’s population. Hence, the communal living was given birth to. The village setting where the Ubuntu’s philosophy of co-existence is emphasised comes into mind. Slowly, the communal living begins to elude man as he goes on with his individualistic endeavours. The need to beat the ‘survival game’ engulfs man’s thinking over the communal lifestyle he once had. Nevertheless, man is a social animal.

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The advent of technology unarguably has aided the ease in working fast and seeing the end-result promptly. Its advancement has even had immeasurable impacts on man’s world- both negatively and positively. Technological advancement has seen the light of social media shining radiantly across the globe like the Sun. Through the power of the social media, the far and wide have been brought together to become a global village.

Here, man is seen to live in the illusion of the communal life on the net. He once again feels the joy and happiness that exude from online ‘companionship’ and ‘friendship.’His daily routine would be to scroll through Twitter, share a tweet or retweet a post, share a funny thoughts on Facebook, follow people on Instagram, get followed back (a feat accomplished). He would proudly boast of the high number of ‘likes’ he gets for sharing a post or how people amenably comment on the post.Interestingly, the battle for ‘likes’ on social media platforms rivals that ofBiafran’s. He sees life through the people’s reception of his posts as a validation of some sort. He becomes a wolf star online but a lone wolf in real life. In sobriety, he shares his sorrowful thoughts and gets several ‘likes’ for them in lieu of physical cuddling. The tugging question would be: Is man genuinely happy?

Babatunde Aishat O.

Ile-Ife