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Lindley Appollis

Statistics show that more and more youths are on social media daily than in the past years; and more and more elders say that we, as youths, waste our time on social media. But is that really the truth, are we really becoming slaves to a “Black Mirror?”

We might not know it at the moment, but as today’s youth, we can make a huge difference if we only use our platforms to speak up and actually spread a message to state a point. We can break boundaries, we can convince minds, we can change directions, we can stop wars and we are the future that will make a difference. There are a lot of people who make it their mission to become social media influencers - the word influencer used in that context refers to people who make a change in the atmosphere due to their status and rank in society. People say if you want change you have to fight for it and that is actually what influencers do. There are some counts of social media influencers that are raising funds to help starving children, there are people trying to shed light on corruption and conflicts in governments. We may see this as vague and uncalled for, but they are bringing voices to situations that have been keep secret for many years.

At De Duine we have our fair share of broad minds and open thinkers, and we have asked them a few questions base on their social media use.

When asked what they thought of the idea that elderly people believe the young generation wastes their time on social media and that they don’t do anything productive, Courtney Marais said that she reasons that it is because when they were young they fought fights to change the world, by standing up and making their voices heard, through marches and protests. As a new generation, we also do that, just not in the traditional way. We use social media as our voice, we make our stand by spreading messages to state a point, and we come together on a globally digital space. We still fight the fights that need to be fought through social media, we use our platforms to make people aware of the social issues that are affecting us.

Today we see people fighting battles that nobody thought would be as controversial. There are cases of countries that only now their voices are being heard, that have gone through struggles and were told to stay quite. Now they can’t keep quite anymore, and with the help of social media their voices were heard and people are standing together to make a change and provide help to those who need it.

We also asked Michelle Barendse for her view points on the comparison between our generation and the next, in terms of us being introduced to technology at a later stage in life and them growing up with it, in a less control way. She said we weren’t as bad as the children of today, because we grew up knowing of phones and laptops but we didn’t pay as much attention to it as the generation of today. She commented that is has been getting increasingly worse, because even really young children – between the ages of 5 and 10 – have mobile phones and are exposed to a lot of social media at this young age. She feels that they have more attitude and are more single-minded, because they feel that they have more “clout” then we do.

It’s true that growing up with technology can make you arrogant, but that’s only some people, there are a lot of benefits and challenges in using technology, but that is all based on how we as a people use it. We cannot blame technology for corrupting our minds, because technology does not use us, we use technology.

So think of it all as this, you’re the one that submits yourself to the information, so all you have to do is be selective of what you observe. Open your mind to learning new things and use your platform to spread the information you have learnt in aims to not only better yourself but also others. Everyone is an influencer, you might not know it, but there are people looking up to you and that want to hear from you.