Ainun Najmah Alhadid

SMAN 81 Jakarta

The Two-Sided Coin of Social Media

Assalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb.

Good morning, Everyone!
Guys, did you know? Total users of social media in Indonesia for this year is 150
millions people or about 56% of total population, mostly dominated with teenagers
like us together with people from Generation Y (who are a little bit older than us).
But, without knowing this fact, I think we already realized the hype of social media
nowadays. Because it is everywhere! In the classroom, at school canteen, even at
home, everybody are always busy looking down at their phones, chatting, making
status, sharing photos, or just scrolling down on their feed. But, have you ever
thought that the hype of social media also has the another side, like a two-sided coin?
Yes, the another side that you probably didn’t realize while scrolling down your feed.
We live in a time and age where information is just a button press away. We,
Post-Millennials Generation or often called Generation Z, are swayed by information
all around us . We want to know, we want to read, we want to understand, and then
we want to speak out our minds about it. No, no, of course, we don’t want to speak
out in front of hundreds pairs of eyes staring at us like in high-level conferences or
formal meetings. I mean, why do we have to do that when we can just sit at home,
behind a screen, and write about our topic and still get the audience? Yes, that is the
time for social media plays its role in our lives.
As we all know, social media is a common phrase that we throw around a lot
these days, often to refers collection of websites, applications, and other platforms
that enable us to create a new way to indirectly communicate with each others
through share or create contents.
Nowadays, social media is one of the biggest elements that we live with and
can’t ignore it. For us, social media is a fantastic way to get us to express ourselves.
Whether it be via Instagram, Line timeline and status, writing on Facebook wall,
Twitter updates, photos we share on Whatsapp status, these are all extensions of us
and our personalities. Social media helps portray our interests, our views, and help
show people who we are. Social media offers a platform for us to be ourselves, to be
creative, to be who we want to be, and most importantly, have audience for all of
these. Moreover, social media is not only about sharing pictures and blogging. It
contains other people’s views and arguments about something that happened around
the world. With the power of Like buttons or Re-Tweet feature, their views and
arguments can reach a larger audiences than you can imagine.
Unlike in the real world, where social etiquette and manners can sometime seem
restrictive and limiting, we feel we have a greater sense of freedom of expression and
speech when using social media. I think, that’s because not every single content can
be watched, evaluated, and completely controlled with millions of users on site. We
don’t have to be shy in showing who we are because no one else can fully controls us.
Sounds cool, right?
Unfortunately, not that cool. That is the main problem in using social media. We
sometime can be too free in using social media. Yeah, too free, until some people use
the chance to expess their views in such an extreme way or attack people, like sexism,
racism, and cyberbullying, for example. Many people ignore etiquette and manners in
speech while they are using social media, because they think they are uncontrolable
in virtual world. That’s why social media is a topic of controversy today. Some
people think it’s a gift, while others think it’s a curse, mostly, because they feel that
social media has destroyed human interaction with a rapid rate and has modified
modern human behavior in relationship. But, people in the pros side think that social
media is a blessing that has connected us to every part of the world. We can meet our
loved ones that are far, we can spread awareness, communicate with our old friends,
etc. So, which side is the right one? Is anyone here who’s in the pros side? And, is
anyone here who stand in the cons side?
Well, both sides are right. Social media can be good for us if we use it wisely as
a place to share and get useful information and as a place to express ourselves in a
normal way without ignoring etiquette and manners. But, it can also gone wrong if
we use it as a place for bullying, victimising, expressing our minds without thinking
first, and for spreading fake news. Every technology is a two-sided coin. They have
both positive and negative impacts.
The important points to use social media wisely are we have to distinguish
between real and virtual life (so that we can get the balance for both of them) and
always think first before we post something in our social media, like ”Is this
information true and important to share?” or “If I post it, will it offend someone?”,
and so on. Let us be influencers for teenagers of our age to promote healthy use of
social media!
Well, I think that’s all I can say. Thank you for your kind attention and sorry if
there is any word or my behave which unpleasing you all.
See you soon!
Wassalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb.