Power to the People
Social media has created not only a whole new way to communicate but has also joined us together in ways we did not or could not imagine. It has crossed over political affiliations, socio-economic classes, and just about every stratum that spans the globe. I now know what people are doing on a minute-by-minute basis halfway across the globe. I know what they are eating, where they are eating it, and what time it arrived. I know who they are seeing and why they are there in the first place.
Social media welds a tremendous amount of power and it is all governed by you and me. We choose to write what we want and when we want. We choose the voice, the tense, and the tone. We choose to add images. We give life to a flat screen that is cold and dumb. We add imagination and share some of our hopes, dreams, and desires with others.
Why? Do we feel that we want to be heard and seen? That we have something interesting to say? That sharing our memories with a larger audience will have a greater impact?
We often want to be accepted or assured that our path in life is admirable. We document our own existence and see what we have accomplished and why we chose our path. We might even look back at our mistakes and choose to rectify them and make restitution. The power to weld social media is in our hands and it should reflect our ideals as a positive force, a force for good. We as individuals and society should govern social media. Social media should reflect our lives the way that we want to live it and it should not govern the way we live. It should be used as a canvas to develop and express our thoughts and ideas for the greater good.