Written by: Jefferson Goh (3B 2022)
In this increasingly digitalised society, a lot of things such as our credit cards, bank
accounts and even our electricity bills are going digital. However, there is one thing that we
do not know ourselves that is going digital and worst of all, even public. Our personal
information which includes our birthday, where we stay, what we like and even where we
study at. Truth be told, I do agree to a certain extent that social media connects us all. Today,
I will be discussing the pros and cons of owning a social media account.
Personally, I have used social media for many years and I do agree that social media
has indeed connected me and many people online more easily. The feeling of not having to
face the person in real life to talk takes the social anxiety personality off me by using social
media. As an introvert myself, I have met many people who share the same hobby and
passions with me through social media. That in itself is an advantage of owning a social
media account. You would be able to regularly interact with those with the same passion as
you and talk about life’s littlest things, even possibly relating with them. In the past, I met a
group of friends online who share the same passion as I do and we would share the latest
news involving what we like. Furthermore, these groups of friends are from Singapore too
and we would be able to relate, talk about our studies and help each other. Besides meeting
new people, you might even be able to reconnect with your long lost friends. For example,
ever since I entered secondary school, I lost contact with my former friend from primary
school. Thanks to social media, I was able to find him and talk to him again. To reconnect
with old friends and to find out about someone of a similar passion like myself makes me
thankful for the existence of social media.
However, it is not all fun and games. As social media is an unknown, unrecognised
territory that we are stepping into, we might not know what harm awaits us upon our “arrival”.
As all our parents have warned us to not share too much of ourselves online, the potential
risk of accidentally sharing too much information about ourselves online is inevident. We
also do not know who we might be talking to. Anyone online can act like an old friend and
approach us, which we might fall into their trap. Someone can just simply impersonate and
cause us to believe that they are real. On social media biography or as short form “bio”, we
would usually put our name, age, nationality, school and even more. As these descriptions
are visible to the public, anyone can just track you down and potentially stalk you home.
They may come to you as nice and caring friends online but they ultimately intend to harm
you. There have been multiple police cases whereby teenagers or even kids meeting these
“kind-hearted and caring” friends from social media and then ultimately went missing and
even the worst case scenario, gone forever, Apart from all the atrocities and traumatic cases,
we might eventually lack the ability to interact face-to-face in real life, posing a risk of the
extinction of face-to-face verbal interaction. The danger behind the screen is real.
We are clearly too blinded by the fact that social media is harmless and a space of
freedom to express oneself. We do not take into account all the risks that social media may
have. It is true that social media is a great place to find people of similar interests and
real-life friends but you would never know whether the person behind the screen is
impersonating or legitimate and whether they intend any harm.
MJR World of Words 