This week's Hive Learners Weekly Contest episode one is a very interesting topic. What social media would you ban if you could?
I have read some posts, and I admit I can't stop laughing. Every time I come across a post that says they would love to ban TikTok. Of course, I saw others, and I even saw one who chose Discord and gave very valid reasons for his opinion. But the TikTok posts are definitely taking it, lol.
Social media isn't all bad. It has become the number one place to pass information, both legit and fake information.
I have gotten a handful of useful information from social media. And even this week, I have seen again an example of how platforms like X help amplify the voices and stories of victims of injustice.
And then we have TikTok. It is also number one on my list, but my list consists of almost all social media platforms except those like Discord, where I have seen people have more control and are self-aware.
I think the number one problem with TikTok is that it is strictly designed for the younger generation, and the content is monetized.
So when you combine money, fame, and the follow trend nature that seems to be very important for some reason to many youths.
So, because of this money and fame, they have turned to making all kinds of shameful content without an ounce of shame in desperation for clicks and payouts.
And for this reason, I try my best to avoid TikTok.
I have also had someone tell me that scrolling through short and meaningless videos on TikTok increases screen addiction and reduces one's attention span.
But apart from the stupid contents, I confess to scrolling through reels, but it's mostly YouTube or Instagram, watching funny content, art, and these days, a lot of food content.
I make sure that whenever I see posts like someone just dancing or with a meaningless caption following a trend, I click on not interested for those kinds of videos not to be recommended to me.
And there are still these kinds of content on other social media platforms, but I have heard that TikTok just has too much of it; that's probably the reason many chose it to be the one they would like to ban.
But when I think about it and actually try not to be selfish I can't choose any one to be banned.
Because it's just like having a glass cup and you put red wine in it but you don't want the cup to be red, the only thing you can do is take the wine out.
In this case, the cup is social media, and the wine that's making the glass red is us human beings.
Social media might be promoting these bad habits and culture but it doesn't change the fact that it is we humans who make them and practice them. We need to start taking more accountability for our actions.