Published via Ecency

Nowadays it is hard to imagine a world without Social Media, our professional and personal lives are closely linked to them. At the moment Daniel and I are on different continents and have been communicating every day, mainly through WhatsApp and eventually through video conferences via Zoom and Google Meet. If this had happened more than 25 years ago our communication options would probably have been limited to the telephone. That is what I am going to write about this weekend for Weekend-Engagement.

In the last 25 years the world has changed at a breathtaking speed and in a global way. When I grew up in the 1970s, computers were seen in science fiction series like UFO or The Time Tunnel, and they covered entire walls. I first worked with a computer in the early 1990s, and then there was no Microsoft Window, the screen was dark and the letters were white, I can't remember what that program was called. I opened my first account on a social network, which was Facebook, fifteen years later, in 2008, to communicate with some friends who no longer lived in Venezuela and had told me that through Facebook it was very easy to communicate, to send messages.

From that point of view, i.e. as a form of communication, social media has really been a blessing. Today we have multiple forms of communication through social networks. For different reasons the intense mobility of people in the world we live in is a reality. In barely a quarter of a century the evolution of social networks has allowed us to establish personal and working relationships with any part of the world. What was once the imagination of science fiction is now simply a reality.

On the other hand, social networks have a really dangerous side, in my view. Its addictive side. When I go out on the street in the city where I live, Caracas, I see people of all ages glued to their mobile phones all the time. Sometimes they are walking and don't even see where they are going. This phenomenon is closely linked to social networks. Many people who can't disconnect from their phones, can't wait to get home and need to be connected all the time, watching news, watching videos, chatting, watching anything. The most worrying thing is to see very young children who are already addicted to social networks, to games on the phone. A few weeks ago I wrote an article on the subject in Hive.

I don't want to demonise social media, they have been really useful for me to communicate with my loved ones who are not in my city, I also use them to promote my professional services, to communicate with my students and clients to do proofreading work, but I really find it worrying that all those wonderful functionalities that social networks offer can end up making me sick and making people sick. A few weeks ago I had to go to the doctor for a neck and shoulder problem that stemmed from excessive use of my mobile phone and computer. Nowadays, when I go online I set an alarm on my mobile phone that goes off after 45 minutes so that I switch off for a few minutes. And I usually don't use my mobile phone when I'm out and about. But millions of people, addicted to social networks, do not take these precautions. It is really worrying.