January 21, 2014
| Rushdi believes that a change agent must tell the truth to a benevolent dictator, religious hardliner, and compassionately connect with youth and have nots. |
"It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tired into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly." – Martin Luther King Jr.
Has social media made us better connected and more informed? Yes, but is that a good development? It seems, for most, an affirmative "yes," and, for small minority, a hind-sight "no."
The social media is broken down for two kinds of people, and they often overlap: professionals and networking, and personal connections. To date, I have exited from Facebook and Instagram, but I have expanded further into Linkedin and Twitter.
Why?
Facebook
I, like hundreds of millions of others, was curious, intrigued and fascinated with the power of connectivity, be it from school days, early employment, crossing paths with people from parties, travel, conferences, and so on.
Or, put more eloquently by Herman Melville:
"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibres connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibres, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects."
Thus, it was hoped that strangers would became acquaintances, and some of them would eventually became our friends. Thus, it was about, at one level, connecting the dots to paint a picture of our own personality and attributes and link to our 'mirror others.'
To make a long story short, I joined Facebook (FB) in the early days, but did not utilise per its "intended purpose". I as dormant "user" eventually left FB, a difficult task in itself, because there were an increasing number of people, from the unsavoury to the unsolicited, that wanted to be friends, but I was not willing to reciprocate.
Maybe I did not give it a patient chance, but I feel I have not missed out, yet!
In hindsight, I realised that I valued my (and my family's) privacy very much, and was not willing to open it up to the virtual community. Yes, there are fail-safe hurdles on FB, but if hackers can break into bank accounts, credit card databases of retail outlets, then it may also be "hackable". But, I suspect I am an insignificant minority as
FB has about one billion users.
It would be interesting to be part of focus group for FB to study people like me, as millions have allegedly left FB, to see if "FB2.0" would be more appropriate!
Instagram
"Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language." – Walt Disney.
I grew up with hard copy pictures, where the film was printed at local film store, and the "good" ones were eventually included in the family album. The album was easily accessible off-the-family shelf or from the storage room, and viewed at gatherings, etc. We were careful to take pictures as the film development costs were not free!
I tried Instagram, and, initially, it was interesting to post and view, but eventually deleted the account, because:
1. Felt the pressure to continue posting pictures in an era of "serial picture takers and posters," via the iPhones, to be relevant. Furthermore, one also needs a "good eye" to capture the essence of the subject in the picture, as its telling a story, and I wear glasses!
2. Got tired of looking at pictures of food and eating habits, holiday pictures, time-lapse (seems daily) kid pictures, family and friend pictures, etc. The novelty was diluted by the excessiveness! One day, I hope understand why people are serial posters of pictures! Is it burning desire to share? Fill a vacuum? Keep attention and stay relevant?
3. Valued my privacy. Yes, only accepted people can view the pictures, but some pictures are not for even friends. For example, even for my What's App picture, I have to re-think before posting pictures of myself or family.
I, probably a very small minority, view photographs as per Parveen Sharma:
"Good photographs are taken not with the camera. Good photographs are taken with Mind, Soul, Eyes, and Imagination where Eyes like a shutter, Mind like a lens, Imagination like an object and Soul like a canvas."
LinkedIn & Twitter
"Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect." – Chief Seattle.
LinkedIn has been one of the best investments of my time, as like-minded industry 'connections' post informative articles, a great source for learning. But, more importantly, professionally connecting to others, including groups, is an important way to build an electronic rolodex, which gets updated by the connection!
Beyond article and connecting, the value for LinkedIn for me has been posting my articles. I have columns in Dubai and Malaysia, and posting the published articles on Linkedin has allowed for a wider target sharing and dissemination. The comments by connections, unlike, say, Yahoo articles, which may have personal attacks, are generally constructive and welcoming.
The only two issues I have with LinkedIn are the unsolicited endorsements and request for opinions. Yes, I am connected to these people, but, outside of a handful people, I have never professionally worked with them! Furthermore, there may be an implied request to also endorse the endorser, but I have never endorsed (non-work connection) as one's reputation is on the line, much like a letter of recommendation.
For someone like me, Linkedin is my de facto Facebook!
Twitter is one of the most important contributions and developments in social media, and its recent oversubscribed IPO is proof positive by millions! For people like me that read a lot about world events, politics, human interest and finance, time and information are two very precious commodities.
Today, there is information overload, be it the message or messenger, and being able to fine tune, whom to follow, is the ultimate customization. The beauty of Twitter is the ability of tweets to convey news, information, and analysis in 140 characters. It has allowed me to "de-couple," about 70%, from newspapers/magazines.
The challenge of Twitter for non-politicians, athletes, entertainers, billionaires, etc., is being relevant, otherwise people "un-follow." Many people retweet and favourite, which works and has an important benefit. For me, the value of Twitter is tweeting about variety of topics, from Islamic finance to the halal industry to politics to human interest to human rights and so on. Thus, it allows me to be the "talk show host and investigative journalist" with editorials.
Conclusion
The social media invasion will not go away, and will only increase it reach, breadth and depth going forward. It has made and launched (and killed) careers and made ordinary people celebrities (and vice versa), hence, an access point to careers, fame and fortune.
It is also the ultimate invasion of privacy, but some people chose to use social media surgically like a knife to make needful incisions of needful information and editorial dissemination! – January 21, 2014.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.
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