Breathing through keyboards and codes: Internet of Things
Hi, it’s a new week, not entirely new with the Afro Bloggers #WinterABC2020 Writing Challenge because as we left last week’s, we are also going into the new week reflecting. Today’s prompt is “4 things I have learned on social media” and as someone who is constantly on her computer or laptop, I might have a little more than four to share — I am writing this while (not completely) disconnected from social media.
I am a great advocate for the good things that social media offers as opposed to how some people see this new innovation as a ‘destructive” tool, especially for millennials. I do not see it as a strange medium of interaction because, to be honest, it is a translation of our everyday lives, exactly as it happens in person. Or maybe, a little bit different.
This might be a shocking disclosure, but as a very reserved person — some may even say shy, others could say introvert, in the worst-case scenario, I have accepted “rude” as a way to describe my lack of intentions to completely be vulnerable with strangers. I have found and continue to learn, evolve and define social media, or rather my online presence, in a way that does not make it seem like I am living completely different lives online as offline.
So here are four things that I find striking in this place I sometimes find solace in.
Ignorance is a bliss …
Now to say this phrase in person is not even half as literal and accurate as it is said online, solely because social media and the internet have become such great learning tools over the years with a wide range of content tailored to suit each demography with just a click away. For clarification, social media is not just Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, it’s an all-encompassing of a wide range of web applications that allow for the sharing of content (Youtube, Websites, ChatBots ) and for interaction (WhatsApp, Skype, Messenger).
Still, there are people on the internet who do not accord even a tiny bit of effort in learning about issues going around in the world that are also largely talked about in the online space. With the availability of phones that require just typing keywords and reading about them, it makes it even harder to convince me that there is a need to explain anything to anyone who has the means to open Twitter and comment on a post with such absurd and untrue opinions.
… but the world, as they say, is a global village …
On the bright side, connectivity has also made it so easy to feel like a part of, and experience the lives of people around the world, especially in my case of women and girls in marginalized communities who like me use the internet to disrupt, find solace in togetherness and community building and express themselves in ways that they could never do off the keyboards. I have also realized that this takes a lot of empathy to engage and witness lives so similar to yours unfold in places you have never visited or don’t even dream of being present at, and show solidarity knowing that the cases are so so similar to yours.
Social media constantly manifests that we are one, that our struggles are the same, and that even when we are distanced and distinguished by weathers, tall buildings, unemployment, and sufferings we journey the same way. Life. Death. Happiness. Depression. Revolutions.
Again, the #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo movement, and several other campaigns that have been started and shifted online and translated to offline actions that have changed and continue to impact the lives of millions of people around the world, beyond borders.
… viz full of crappy people, as in real life.
I guess this is the point where I accept that social media, and generally, the internet also has its drawbacks, as does everything in this life. The anonymity and vulnerability that comes with being on social media is resulting in a lot of people being hurt, and sometimes even when they take the highest levels of safety required.
Women continue to be targetted victims of online gender-based violence and children are exposed and vulnerable to child grooming by perverts online. So in this case, as a woman or girl, it is important to equip yourself with digital safety and security tools of the different platforms you use online so you don’t fall victim. As parents, guardians, or siblings to children who have access to the internet, you should also try to protect them by learning how and also helping them understand how to detect abnormalities on the internet.
Yet, social media is a great tool for expression.
On a closing note, I find the internet a great place to empty myself and be completely vulnerable, as I would not in real life. It embodies the freedom and power I have as an individual who is in total control of what I say, who I choose to or not to interact with, and what about myself I choose to share with strangers.
Even though sometimes, there’s a thin, invisible line between your online and offline body, but even during those times, there is a community somewhere waiting for you to log back on and start from where you stopped with emojis and memes to give your friendly conversations life.
P.S: I did not think I would post anything today, I did not plan to, I did not have the strength to. Yet here I am, still going and checking off lists using this same internet I am meant to stay away from.
