Thursday 5 February 2015

When Virtual meets Reality

As ironic as it may sound, I do have my dislikes for social media at times.

The impact of social media can be huge. 
Every single word that you post after pressing that "Enter" key on your seemingly harmless keyboard can be seen by the kazillions of people online (and that includes your family members, spouse, relatives, etc).
You'll have no idea who are the ones reading it, just like how I am clueless who is reading my current blog entry, too.

As much as I love social media (which explains why I became a blogger to begin with), I have had my fair share of negative experiences that changed my perspective towards the impact it can cause in real life.
I was someone who did not give second thoughts about ranting online, and did it one day when I was upset with a classmate. 
Everything happened a long way back.

While I did not name names, she happened to read what I wrote (which I had no idea she read my blog as I was not really high profile back then). Things somehow got out of control and we engaged in a "keyboard" war. 
Our friendship took a bad turn as we eventually brought it to real life by giving each other the cold shoulder since then.

Things were never, ever the same again after the incident.
And it all started only with just a blog post.
See how powerful social media can be?
It may be a spur of the moment, but there is no turning back once the damage is done.

That is one of the reasons why too much Facebook-ing can be bad as well. With Facebook, one is able to post his/her thoughts online instantly within seconds, and it is not helping that many are using it as a platform to express their emotions and thoughts. albeit the negative way.
(Yes, I am not afraid to admit that I am guilty of being one of these people)


Don't get me wrong -I love Facebook. I use it as a social platform to interact with my friends (and it has helped me to re-connect with long-lost ex-classmates too, which I am thankful for), share my blog posts to a larger group of audience, promote my blog, etc. Not to mention that I enjoy reading the random posts shared by friends on there as well.

It's just that most people have underestimated the power of Facebook and its influences.
There were times when I was aware certain people were posting about me (without naming my name) as those posts were simply too obvious.
Of course, feigning ignorance is my forte.

多一事不如少一事.

Always remember, think twice before you post. 
Unless you are mentally prepared to sacrifice the relationship or friendship, that is.

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