Since 2009, netizens around the world celebrate Social Media Day every 30th of June. Actually, such a day never existed until Mashable.com thought it was the perfect day for online friends to meet up in real life. SM Day became popular year after year with cities all around the world hosted meetups, regardless whether people are solely into Facebook or Twitter (now we also have Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube.)
We also celebrate SM Day here in the Philippines. My first time to attend was in 2010 and only a handful of us went. Then two years later, a group of friends who all met on Twitter 2-3 years before organized a major SM Day in Makati. One of the reasons we celebrated it is because the world recognized the Philippines as the “Social Media Capital of the World.” I was there, and I was proud to celebrate it with friends whom I met online 2 years before.
They recently invited us to join this year’s event. I declined by leaving our chatroom in Facebook. Why? Because my question is, why do we have to celebrate?
Years ago, I can’t breathe if I am not able to access and of my social media apps. I’m always excited to find out about my friends’ latest food discoveries, updates about their families, posting of jokes, or basically anything that’s under the sun. Nowadays, I’m sick of it.
Social Media is now being used to spread false information. I remember as early as 2014 when a Facebook group started to spread lies about a former Philippine dictator being the greatest President the country ever had. I saw a friend sharing this on his wall. Then another friend shared on his wall, and another. A year later it became a lot more frequent and it alarmed a lot of us. Last year, the Dictator’s son almost won the Vice Presidency.
And then we have fake news. A popular blogger who’s very well known for throwing her support to the current Philippine President is also very well known for spreading fake news against the members of the Opposition, most particularly the current Vice President. Other bloggers (whether they are paid by politicians or not) did the same thing and contributed to this big f*****g mess. I thought this would only exist in the Philippines, but I was flabbergasted that all the other countries have followed suit. If we are going to celebrate SM Day, why not invite her and the rest of those scums to party with us then?
Trolls. They irk me the most. Instead of having a healthy debate, they respond you with insults. You give them facts, they throw s**t at your face. I don’t have to share more examples of this. Oh, since we have a lot of ’em keyboard warriors, invite them too in your social media day!
Since my work involves social media, I see these problems every day. It’s already fuckingsickeningtiring. Facebook and Twitter is too toxic already even up to now. Several years ago, our country was united by being the Social Media Capital of the World. Nowadays, Social Media has divided our country into pieces.
I didn’t greet anyone “Happy Social Media Day” yesterday and I did not go to the event today. What for? What’s there to celebrate about? If the world wants to celebrate it, then go ahead. I still don’t give a fuck.
