Haunted by inner ghosts or masters of our lives?
Just yesterday I was laughing with my colleagues as I was reading about the fuzz we have since recently here in Helsinki about Facebook and its bad influence on people's life. It all started when our leading newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published an article on the 8th of March saying that FB makes us unhappier and lonelier. It even went as far as saying that FB can lead to eating disorders among youngsters.
According to the article, some researchers have proven that looking and observing other people's life and pictures on FB make us feel even more unsatisfied with our lives. Me and my colleagues were laughing at this since we do not agree at all. I guess one should stay inside or in untouched nature to not compare oneself at all with others. Come on, FB is just one media. Can we honestly give this much power to it? Isn't time for us to look into the mirror? Aren't we really all afraid of ourselves? The ghost we have haunting within ourselves? I mean, if one feels bad about oneself because of what they see or read on FB, is that really FB's fault or are we making ourselves feel bad?
I can personally say that when I have encountered problems of uncertainty or insecurity in my life, it has all gotten to do with thoughts in my head, caused by myself. The moments when I truly feel bad, I usually ask myself how I have let myself get into those kinds of moments. I prefer to think we are all masters of our destiny and above all life. I do not like to think of people as weak and leading.
But since the discussion has even gotten people to think about putting an age limit to FB, shouldn't we then block all types of media? More important should be to learn how to deal with oneself. Ask ourselves where our thoughts are born. Only when we truly know ourselves, we can encounter others and genuinly communicate. Don't blame the forum or the tool, instead, go to the source of the problem.
For me FB is the tool to communicate with people I care about, it's a community. I share things about myself because I want the people I have befriended on FB to know how I am doing. I don't think anybody writes things on FB to make others feel bad. If so, that's their problem, no? There will always be abusers of things, don't let them spoil it for the others. After all, if they really wanted to hurt you, would they have become your friend? And if you think somebody is making you feel bad about yourself, why are you then that person's friend on FB?
In the tornado of social media, let's at least try to see the positive aspects. Just yesterday, our team leader at work, was encouraging us to think about all the marketing we could do through FB. Social media really opens up new ways to reach people and be present in people's everyday life. Since most of the commercial companies have joined FB and are reaching their customers through FB, why shouldn't we? I believe the Tourist Office of Helsinki is one thousand times more likeable than a company selling say a magazine. Ideas for us?
What's your opinion?