Every day, I receive a message, usually a fair few messages, from my best friend Sinead. We didn’t meet through education, or through mutual friends or family. Sinead and I are friends because we came across each other’s posts on a fansite for a popular book and film series about a young wizard who’s lifelong friendships also began, in a way, with a messages. My messages from Sinead have yet to contain acceptance to a magical school but have so far provided me with a sense of belonging that I don’t think I would else find in a physical place. Each time I unlock the screen of my phone to open a message from her, I am delightfully reminded of our friendship many hours of wonderful conversation we have shared… Though I know that it is the hotly debated subject of social media I have to thank for this connection.
Social media is often demonised for its negative impact on our lives. We see it’s brash opinions battling over every controversy it can get its hands on, causing conflict from the playground to work place in a flurry of ill considered words. We see the less than sensitive blaming the overly sensitive, politicians, celebrities, call-outs and ‘cancellations’ dividing and determining success and status. Yet, I feel that in all this criticism it is the communities such as the one I met my friend in that fall through the cracks. There is no celebration for the sense of self I and so many others have found through finding each other in our global village: the internet.
In ways, I do understand. We’ve all seen the news articles warning us about how social media tires our brains, can affect our sleep patterns and increase stress. Perhaps even more concerning is increasing evidence of a pattern between social media usage and suicide in teenagers. These are concerning statistics and ones we should be tackling, most definitely, but at the expense of vilifying social media and its ability to connect us with other like-minded, well-wishing and wonderful people? That, I am not so sure of.
Across the entire world we see communities forming based on religion or shared beliefs, shared interests, shared passions. Ceremonies and celebrations are held as ways of upholding these shared loves, a recognition of the glues that unite us as a collective and the values that they hold. Though these have previously seen these events take place in a physical location, the online world gives place to a thriving community of diversity, a place millions have access to, regardless of their physical location. A place where two teenagers might find each other, form a friendship that changes both of their lives for the better, and results in eventually finding themselves at the same university as one another.
Despite is toxicity, social media has proven to be one of the most important things in my life for the simple fact it has provided me with one of the most important people in my life. Now Sinead and I live a two minute walk apart, rather than 200 miles apart, and I only have social media to thank for that. Perhaps the problem lies not with social media itself, this metaphorical monster it is so often given the image of, but the people behind the screens. The issues we see in social media’s seedy underbelly are in fact issues within our own society, and it’s citizens. We have heard the phrase ‘don’t shoot the messenger’, but we do not think of social media sites as these messengers. Do not blame Twitter for the tweet, but the person who wrote it, and so on. I think it is time we stop naming the mask the criminal, and focus on the people behind it.