Social media addiction

It was yet another day when I logged in to my facebook account in order to kill my time and my eyes got fixed when I suddenly saw a facebook page titled; “when I shut down my computer I pick up my cell phone and start using facebook again”. With a faint smile on my face I finally understood that why ‘social media’ is the “buzz word” nowadays and what a great deal of contribution our tiny communication gadgets (cell phones) have made towards the promotion of this new form of media.

With the evolution of technology many new technological aspects of our life have been correlated and they reinforce the effect of each other. Therefore, they affect us (the humans) synergistically through their dual action. Teenagers are ‘tweeting’, ‘facebooking’, they are connected with their social circle 24 hours a day through their cellular phones and aren’t forgetting to update their day to day activities by utilizing tools of social media.

If the flare is gaining this pace then it is quite witty at the end of cellular phone brands to mention facebook, twitter and my space while publicising their handsets. Even the low end handsets are now ensuring the facility of GPRS and a facebook application. Realizing the importance of this latest innovation in the media world and the way it has taken to enter into the life of people a handset compatible for internet use is now emerging as a necessity. Why not? After all facebook hosts more people than those in China and India. Yes! According to an estimate facebook has more population (users) than that of China and India. Even if you think that it’s unfair to take it in that context because a single user can have more than one account then don’t forget that there are twins and triplets in the real world as well. It is also interesting to note that the United States has more facebook users than voters.

Let us take the example of the Arab Spring, the protests which initiated it were all coordinated through facebook and twitter. Therefore, political and social activism is also a consequence of social media use in a variety of ways.

This paradigm shift in media culture is spreading like a wild fire. It doesn’t matter that you are a gossip queen, a rock star, a mobile dealer or even a lay man- who doesn’t like to remain in touch with near and dear one’s through a cost effective medium? Social media does the magic and cell phones are facilitating it to do so.