Mc Keown said on his book that nowadays technology has
lowered the barrier for others to share their opinion about what we should be
focusing on. It’s not just information overload, it’s opinion overload. The
preponderance of opinions has overwhelmed our ability to manage it. For some
cases, it’s no need to look for what’s going on. Information just jump to us
through our gadget, like a morning message from Line Today, a text through
whatsapp group, a notification from Twitter or Instagram, an email about sale
from some online shops, a pop up from our browser, etc.
Now it’s very easy to dig any
information we want to know, about health, film review, new hype places, food,
someone we like, etc. It’s good a news, it makes us easier to find anything we
want to know. But in other side, it’s a bad news. The side effect of
infobesity can lead us to have attention disorder trait, a lack of
productivity, lack of confidence, poor decision making, other. And something
which is really close with us now is social media, where information are very
easy to exchange and drive people assumption.
Some of us now easily share everything without feeling guilty. Ago,
we would be angry everytime our friend/sister took our diary. Ago, it felt so shy to ask someone
give her/his photograph. But today, we don’t need to be their inner circle to have their photographs. Several people
won’t be angry if people read their status knowing them having some big
problems in life. In a day, we would be overwhelmed by a lot of information,
from news about divorce, marriage of your ex, what your friends do, where your
friend travel and sometimes those information aren’t urgent/important to
follow.
Social Media has changed many people not only on how they interact each other, but also their habit on how they use the platform itself. How much time wasted on kepo-ing ex, girlfriend’s ex,
or someone else? How much time wasted on browsing something (in fact) we
don’t need? Scrolling timeline? Scrolling explore? We now can ‘adore’ someone
just because their digital image. And we now can ‘hate’ someone based on what
we see through their image on internet.
Through her book, Lagom, Akerstorm said “we are now living
in times of undue pressure that demand we constantly remain unplugged in and
connected with the rest of the world, stay on top of breaking news by the
second, and keep up with dizzying speed of technological advancements,
lifestyle changes and pop culture norms.” For what? But technology has made us
to do so. We are now moving to unnatural pace, trying to keep up with
everything. Once we heard about a viral news, we will try to stay relevant. Or
when there is new hype stores open, we will try to avoid getting metaphorically
left behind. It feels like there is internal push to stay up-to-date and
relevant with surroundings. While sometimes we forget about the essence why we
are doing so.
Being left behind to your girls’s instastories wouldn’t decrease your wealth. Knowing the
first about people’s life, apple stock price or HBR new articles won’t add
significant value to your life, unless you work for that. So, why are you doing
so? We are now afraid of being left behind, not up-to-date about other’s life,
about the most-recent-viral news. Is that really mean to our life?
Beside being overwhelmed by the preponderance of
opinion/information, I’m just bored
reading many hatred, hoax through social media. It’s just scary when people
nowadays can easily conclude, judge based on opinions without pretending it’s
credibility. How hoax is really easy to spread, and sadly some people now
easily believe too. Once government announce some new regulations, there will
be some (oh no- but - many) people become ‘expert’ or ‘guru’ just in several
days. Some of them are shaped by 24-hours news cycle and driven by emotional
also personal belief. Once gossip account exposed a new post, many people will comment with hate like they know and close enough with the artist. In fact, what's the impact to our life when we comment with hate? How if you are on the bullied people side. Even in
other hand, I should thank to social media. Because of them, I can promote my
online shop, sell my product, and ask people to join some movements.
Sometimes
we need to shut our world out in order to relax, rejuvenate our bodies,
emotionally, mentally. Use social media
wisely and filter what you read before you believe. Be kind, share love, not hatred J
