Happy Birthday, Social Media!

"What is the first thing that you do immediately after waking up?"

If you had asked this question to a person two decades back, then the probable answers would have been:

• "I have a glass of water."
• "I visit the washroom."
• "I thank God for gifting me another day to live."

Today, if you ask the same question to someone he or she is more likely to say one among the following:

• I check Facebook!
• What else apart from Instagram?
• I go through Twitter!

Whether you like it or not, Social Media has changed the way we interact, communicate, share and respond to people and events. The trend of celebrating 'Social Media Day' was first made viral on 30 June 2010 by Mashable, an entertainment company established in 2005. 

The company had thought of celebrating the said date with the intention of recognizing the influence of social media on worldwide communication. 

While Sixdegrees was the maiden social media platform founded in 1997, the world witnessed the launch of Friendster in 2002. The website allowed people to connect, share and communicate with one another. With LinkedIn coming into the business in 2003, both MySpace and Facebook came to be founded in 2004. 

YouTube took over the world in 2005 followed by Twitter, launched in 2006. Finally, Instagram made itself known to the world in 2010. 

In today's world, social media has become a habit. We love scrolling through our feed, commenting on random posts, and most importantly stalking the profiles that interest us. 

While we love connecting with that one friend sitting in the other corner of the world, we lose connections with the people around us. We start taking them for granted. We forget to 'like' their life events, 'share' their emotions, and 'comment' on their well-being. 

Whenever we pick up our phones and delve into the glossy world of social media, we get disconnected from our immediate surroundings and remain superficially connected to the outside world. We forego our privacy and that of our near and dear ones in exchange for increased engagement in our posts. 

Social media is undoubtedly a powerful tool. The tool that has caused a massive transformation in the world. Today, millions of people remain connected through different social media platforms. People seek and find solace in friendships and relationships that they build over such websites. 

But, is social media really making us more social? 

Humans are social beings. The basic reason behind the creation of society has been the very tendency of people to live together. To form communities. To be a part of a specific group. 

While social media claims to connect people better and enhance communication among them, isn't it also not responsible for lowering our attention spans and making us less tolerant to other people's ideas, opinions, and viewpoints?

This is an unending debate devoid of any absolute conclusion. Whatever the outcome of this discussion might be, social media is here to stay. So, let's pledge to use it in a better way. 

Happy Birthday, Social Media!