Social Media, Pandora's Box
Have you ever thought about the alikeness of Pandora's Box and Social Media? I have, often. To me, social media is a very similar resemblance of Pandora's Box.
The Wikipedia definition of Pandora's Box is;
Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology, taken from the myth of Pandora's creation in Hesiod's Works and Days.[1] The "box" was actually a large jar (πίθος pithos)[2] given to Pandora (Πανδώρα, "all-gifted, all-giving"),[3] which contained all the evils of the world. Pandora opened the jar and all the evils flew out, leaving only "Hope" inside once she had closed it again. Today the phrase "to open Pandora's box" means to perform an action that may seem small or innocent, but that turns out to have severely detrimental and far-reaching negative consequences.
Think about this; before social media we did not know much of what others, throughout the country and beyond, thought about much of anything. We did not have people going around shooting videos of strangers and posting them for the world to see, all while making a mockery of them, and we did not have people staging videos to go viral. These days, you never know when you will be the star of a viral-video that you had no idea existed. This used to be a crime, you used to have to have someone's permission to publish a picture or video of them. What happened to that? Why are people getting away with this? Isn't this an evasion of privacy? Has it become too widespread to do anything about it? Or, is it that most people don't know that they are a victim of this crime? Is it still against the law?
Since the growth in popularity of social media, hate has spread like a plaque and hate speech is becoming a common occurrence mistaken for the right to 'freedom of speech'. There have been certain public Facebook pages that I have marked to hide from my news feed because I have a tendency to want to read the comments under their posts. I don't know why I am so tempted to read those comments since I usually end up with my blood boiling after I read comments about certain current events, issues or people. I have to really practice self-control not to respond, and sometimes I fail. When I see comments where people are going back and forth arguing their views and being as hateful as they can be, using profanity, calling each other names and making racist comments I feel so much pain in my heart and soul. I can't stand it!
From what I hear in the news, in many ways, social media has become a valuable tool for terrorist abroad and home-grown terrorists alike. Social media has become a safe place for people to portray someone who or what they are or are not. If we don't know someone personally, we really have no idea if they are who or what they say they are. Not only that, sometimes strangers are posing as someone we know and sometimes we fall for the deception. Social media may have started out innocent and fun, but as it grows and opens up to the whole world the more evil there is being released into our homes, on our phones and computers. And, I have noticed lately that it seems that the news channels are getting a lot of their news from social media posts. Often, I see something on the news that I saw a couple of days before on social media. Don't worry, if you aren't on social media you will more than likely still see juicy news on TV because they are going to show you anything that went viral.
It seems that in addition to the spread of hate and evil we are not really safe on social media, which by the way does include our children and will influence them in one way or another. Today, being on social media we are having to watch out for profile clones, Facebook Farming, hackers, pedophiles preying on our children's photos, ISIS, other terrorists, call to actions on riots and protests, being humiliated by video voyeurism, being harassed, our photos being stolen right off our profile and being used however the thief chooses, and much, much more. We are making it too easy for bad people to do a lot of bad things to us. Recently in the news, there is a claim of some Marines posting naked photos of female Marines. What the heck? This is a prime example of what I am talking about.
I do have Facebook and Instagram accounts. Twitter and the other social media sites do not interest me whatsoever because my friends and family are not so active there. Instagram doesn't bother me as much as Facebook. I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. Sharing photos, love and experiences with family and true friends is a great thing. If it were not for my family and closest friends living afar, I would delete my accounts never to be on again. I still may end up there one day. There are so many things about being on social media that are scary to me, not to mention disheartening from watching the evils come out of social media. Like the evils escaping Pandora's Box and taunting Pandora, those evils taunt me. Although I know this will never happen, maybe if we close Pandora's Box, aka social media, Hope and Love will prevail. But, according to the myth, which I am afraid lines up with social media today, once the box is opened the evil is let out and Hope is closed up in the box.
Aside from feeling unsafe and often offended, I also feel that social media has replaced personal interaction by means of face to face and telephone visits and conversations. There are times when being on Facebook steals my joy, and there are times when it brings a smile to my face. And, I admit, I am as guilty as the next in participating in social media interaction daily. I admit that I am as guilty as the rest in loosing touch with being more personable with my loved ones. Everyday, I ponder the thoughts of ridding myself of any association with social media. If only I could convince my family and friends to do the same, I know without a doubt I would not hesitate to stop. If only we could revert back to the days when social media did not exist, I believe life would be better for us all and eventually we may be able to experience peace among us again.
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