Social media - the messenger

"Did you tweet today?" "What was your status update today on facebook?" These have become the lingo of the current generation. Social media is engaging a vast mass of the population. Greeting cards are getting converted into e-cards and included as attachments with mails. Meetings are happening on hangouts virtually. Overall, the social media space is filling the space of communication amongst people. Even call or SMS feel outdated in front of the Whatsapp and ChatOn mobile applications. The least money is charged for people to throw their messages on social media.

 

The social media has all the options of like, share, retweet, comment etc. These options are virtually providing an environment for feedback for whatever the people post on different social media platforms. These are more public than they appear to be. They showcase our thoughts and feelings put in words to a number of people completely unrelated to the topic of interest. It's not always the set of people who LIKE or RETWEET what we update, who are the only ones to whom our messages reach. We must be really careful before updating any content online. As more and more people are glued to the internet learning what's happening in the lives of others, more the people are feeling the lacking of a friend who can give an ear to listen to them. As a result, frustrations pile up in the hearts of people which come out as baseless self-realizations on the social media platforms as posts, tweets, comments and status updates.

 

Indirectly, social media has become a platform of messaging the things running in the minds of people. When a person is hurt by his/her friend, there's an instant message online depicting the incident and the conclusion from the experience which might be completely wrong also as in most of the cases. The status update is posted to make sure that it hits the person who has hurt than just to merely update a status. Social media doesn't put an obligation on people from coming on to the streets of timelines and shouting nonsense their heart and mind out. As a result, everyone feels the freedom of not being questioned or condemned by anyone while updating online whatever that comes to their mind which might lead to bitter results later. Hence it's important to use social media only as a platform for connecting with others as a means of communication rather than as a messenger to spit our negative emotions and feelings. The right use of the modern technology is highly important.

Today's youth

“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.” Can you guess who made this statement? The youth has been totally taken to task by the person who quoted these statements. Keep guessing while we get into the details of the article.

 

There have been a lot of complaints on the youth today by the elders. Now what's the age where in we should treat someone as youth has become a big question for many. People of age 45 are being called as the symbol of youth, the youth icon, young leaders and so on and so forth. Even the children who start their teenage are considered as youth nowadays with facebook allowing people above the age of 13 to enter the online world. However, only the youth can be the saviour of youth of such comments. The youth always feels that the elders are there only to blame the youth. They aren't in sync with the new modern age that the youth is in today. Hence they feel that whatever the youth does is always wrong. Coming to the manners, discipline and respect, the elders always feel that the youth isn't up to the mark. While saying 'Hi!' is a mark of respect for the youth, it's totally unacceptable in the adult community. The trends have changed. It's a big question as to when will the aged accept the youth or the youth live up to the expectations of the elders. So how long has this cold fight between the youth and the elders been happening from?

 

With the changing times and the growing number of new innovations the lifestyle of people is continuously getting modified day by day. The old customs and traditions are being challenged as the new day jobs are much more demanding and contradictory to the lifestyle of the olden days. As a result of all these changes in the situations the behaviour of people is also getting affected and every generation is seeing a new trend that's much more liberal than that of the previous generation. Probably many of you would have guessed that the quote at the beginning of this article was said by some person who belongs to the 20th or 21st century. Some of you might have even succeeded to take a name from 18th or 19th century. But I was shocked to learn that this quote was quoted by an ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates who lived between 470 B.C and 399 B.C. The youth has been complained about for more than 2400 years now.

 

So, you being a youth, do you have any answer for these complaints?

Care for those who care for you

No beating around the bush, let me come straight to the point. Care for those who care for you. This world is filled up with seven hundred crore plus population but the world that belongs to you will be of those people who care for you only. I am not against any kind of service that should be contributed towards the society irrespective of whether we get returns out of it or not. It must be done. When the word service comes, immediately you can be very sure that you can't expect anything from the other side. Be prepared for this at the beginning itself. But when it comes to expectations between people who surround us everyday be very cautious enough to know as to how much to expect out of whom.

Our family comes the first in this regard who bestow upon us the utmost care and its your duty in return to provide the highest care for you family that supports you day in and day out. Next comes those close knit of friends who have spent sufficient time with you and a very cordial relationship exists between you and your friends. Let me reveal the bitter truth that this group of friends between whom the mutual care will be the highest probably whom you can refer as the best of the friends cannot be more than fifteen to twenty. In most of the cases it doesn't even cross single digit. When I say friends in this regard definitely I don't refer to those hundreds of friends that you have on your facebook friendlist. The next circle is that of the official arena of colleagues. You can be lucky enough to find some really genuine friends who really care for you in this set. If you find some, do care for them also. The final set of people are the so called 'just friends' or the 'hi-bye' type of friends. Sometimes some of us are so open hearted that we give our best care and concern to almost everyone who meet us. We belong to that set of fortunate children of God who can smile at anyone who comes in front of our eyes. We are those extraordinary people who can make anyone feel that they are very special to us with hundred percent genuinity. We are those amazing human beings with a lovely heart who can't stand hurting anyone even by a mere sigh. We belong to those committed individuals category who will live upto every expectation that of the other person has from us whether he/she belongs to our family or friends or just another human. Feel proud if you belong to the above fantastic set of souls on this planet.

But the cruel truth is that not all people on the earth are the same as you my dear reader. World is filled with all types of people. Some who just want to take advantage of your genuinity, some who can't tolerate your happiness quotient, some who can't see you being appreciated, some who take pleasure in just hurting you and so on. Just remember one thing - "When people falter your expectations continuously, just know that they are not going to last for long in your life". This was a learning passed on by a business giant to his relative who shared it with my mentor who taught me the same. So remember friends, whenever you are caring for someone other than the family and the best friends, be aware about how much is given back also. There's no point in showering your entire care on someone who doesn't know the value of it. Your caring for a non-deserving person is your denial of care for a more deserving person. Use your care with extreme care.

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