Whenever I reflect on my life and see how much time I have wasted on social media and how much pain it has caused me at some point, I am left with nothing but agony.
Before I proceed, let me make something clear, social media is harmless, it was created to benefit man positively, but like all other inventions, how we use it determines the outcome.
For instance, a knife was invented to help us cut or slice vegetables for food and other things, but some people use it for crime.
So, social media is there for good but how one uses it, the motive, the dependence and so on, is what will determine what you get out of it, whether a positive result or the negative one.
Having said this I can proceed. Do you realize that one of the common sources of distractions in our day for most people is social media?
Someone can wake up from morning until evening and not do anything productive but remain on social media scrolling endlessly and before he/she realizes, another day is spent already.
I have gotten so much blow from certain social platforms and if only I could turn back the hands of time, I wouldn't have clicked that register button the day I did.
A lot is going on social media these days, from fake news, to fake life, to lies, to competition, hate, and so on.
Platforms that were created to make communication and connection easy for mankind have now become the very platforms causing us problems.
Talking about which social platforms should be banned, do you realize that almost all the web 2 platforms are becoming a problem to society?
From Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, X and so on, which do you think is even better? Gone are the days, when social media served their purposes, nowadays most people are using them for unnecessary things.
Well, they say “One man's food is another man's poison.” The issue of which social media should be permanently banned is subjective and it's something that would be difficult to do because everyone has their opinion on this.
The social media platform that doesn't appeal to you might be the best for another person and the person would give you genuine, justifiable reasons.
This is why I consider this matter a bit complicated. Nevertheless, I have two platforms that I think should be eliminated for the good of everyone: TikTok and Facebook.
I don't know if I am the only one who noticed that TikTok is now like a human to a majority of people.
This minute you are communicating with your friend or loved one, the next minute either you or the person is already on TikTok watching videos, totally neglecting you.
We no longer have time for each other, this applies to parents too. A gen z mother would be cooking and be active on TikTok. If the husband complains it's a problem, same thing with the gen z Dad.
We are so distracted and addicted to the platform that we feel like our lives depend on it.
People burn money watching contents that are irrelevant and do challenges that won't contribute a dime to their lives.
Most people now copy the lives of the celebrities they see on the platform, and our youth naively think most of it is reality and do anything possible to recreate them.
For Facebook, the lies are too much, the rate at which fake news is spread on Facebook is so overwhelming.
Bloggers fabricate news, say things celebrities didn't say and just cause an uproar for nothing.
And you know Facebook, I don't think there is anything that spreads information like it, within a split of seconds an information has already circulated.
I can count how many times I saw information on Facebook that I personally spread that was not true. I was left devastated and full of shame. It was the platform that taught me how to always verify information from at least three more sources before going further to spread it.
How about the fights we see everyday between people who ought to be an example for us to follow?
Today this person will blast that person, tomorrow the person will fire back and it continues. Sometimes I wonder if the management of Facebook is seeing all these.
If you ask my opinion, I will say these two should be taken down.
**Will Banning Them Make Any Difference?**
I think so, if TikTok and Facebook are banned, a lot will change. You will see how people will bounce back to building relationships with their families and friends.
You will see how serious students will become, and how fake life and all these quests to copy celebrities will drastically drop. The rate of fake news will also go down
The wise will even invest the money they are using to buy data and burn it for nothing on social media for something good.
**But Will That Be The Best Option?**
I don't think so, as much as these platforms have the bad sides, they are also good in many ways and most importantly, they are some people's sources of livelihood, terminating them will mean taking food from someone's table and that won't be nice at all.
Instead of banning, I think the standards should be looked into again. The management of these platforms can make room for only quality, true, reliable and productive contents.
Also, there should be sensitization in schools, places of worship and homes on how to use social media, its advantages and the dangers.
And as individuals, we should also know our limits to using these platforms for our good. But if we ban these platforms, trust me, new ones will emerge and the problem continues.
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N.B: All Images Were Generated By Meta AI
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