Social Media: An addiction or a privilege?
Translated by Anastasia Tsitsani
Based on the original article in Greek by Μάριος Κωστόπουλος
Undoubtedly, social media has become an integral part of young people’s daily routine. The possibilities and the prospects that unfold from their right use are endless. The threats looming because of the irresponsibility of their use, just as many. Nowadays, with the percentages of users increased at a very fast rate, do young people have the critical ability of making good use of social media in order to gravitate towards a certain professional field and make the most of every work-related chance given to them? Or are they just victims of their own young age and the extensive use of social media can only end up having negative effects on them?
Social media are now an international phenomenon in the digital world. Big companies, either international or local, take advantage of their constantly increasing power and influence. Other than advertising purposes, they are in a non-ending search of new employees, especially interested in the creative and tireless “brains” of young people. For example, with a simple scroll on Facebook’s first page, anyone can come across an advertisement of a multinational company searching for workforce urgently. Thus, with just a single click, the possibility of finding a job appears out of nowhere.
However, every young person needs to make good use of the privilege of social media at full blast. For instance, a daily research of how the market is shaped and what professions are trending worldwide at this period of time is worth 10 minutes of your daily life. We need to remember that social media are flooded with such information. At the same time, platforms that allow you to present your professional skills and your curriculum vitae are now created non-stop. A platform like this for example, is Behance, a source of ideas and creativity from people that are on the same professional field as you, also offering a chance of finding a job, even from the comfort of your own home, as many companies keep up with platforms like these all the time.
Despite that, social media only having a positive side would be too good to be true. Obviously, the offered opportunities are tempting, but this temptation can end up being very dangerous. Conniving employers, taking advantage of young people’s need to find a job and have an easier life, serve their own purposes. Virtual payments, fake announcements for job opportunities that are just an experiment of each company in order to see the impact that this might have, stealing CVs and assignments from the aforementioned platforms or from others, are only a few of the looming dangers.
Meanwhile, we must not forget the part of addiction. Nowadays’ generation grew up saying “there is no bad press” because of super-athletes, celebrities showing off their wealth that comes from fame. Unfortunately, social media can become a kind of simulation of that fame, where the limits are nonexistent and everyone can promote themselves, since they can post photos and videos nonstop. However, addiction comes from the desire to imitate modern role models and the only way out is them showing off of their personal life, hoping to get fame and money. Thus, a continuous vicious circle of self-promotion is created, where smartphones become an extension of our hands, since we always check social media in order to see whether we are “liked” to the impersonal digital world, in other words, whether we are accepted by people we don’t even know.
To conclude, there are two things that young people need to realize. Firstly, social media is a huge benefit in order to get to the job market and have a successful career. In addition, self-promoting has its limits. Whether we like it or not, not all of us can be famous/ we can’t all be famous (upstart or not). In a reality full of addictions, let social media be one less. Free time is not restored, so you shouldn’t waste it in front of a cell phone screen if this is not going to make your life better.
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