Everyone seems to use or at least be aware of some form of social media or another, and age is not a restrictive factor when it comes to using it. It's true that there are certain demographics that tend to use technology more than others, but everybody knows what social media is and why is exists. I for one am not too keen on social media, but it has become a medium I use to relay information, forms of entertainment, or communication with friends or family members that are not easily accessible every day.

The potential to use social media has wide range. Social platforms can be used to create groups for sharing ideas or discussing the day’s events. Additional, soul individuals can use social media to broadcast themselves, their perspective, their viewpoints, and the things that occur in their lives they deem relevant. Often this is presented in a blogger format where people also engage and or provide feedback related to the writer’s experiences.

It is concerning when these mediums are abused, and the life of an individual provokes bullying or spewing hate related to one’s viewpoints. Sometimes people can delve too far into details. It amazes me how people become famous through the power of their written words or documented activities, both positive and negative. I mean this in the way in which sometimes fanbases form, or people look upon what a specific social media user is doing, and the words they're using or photos they're posting go viral. There will always be those people that want to defend the person as if the words they say have affected them personally, and then there are those that gang up, commenting the same thing over and over. It is intriguing how social media can create intimate atmospheres even though this is all occurring behind a computer screen and via the Internet or the app that is being used.

The other thing I have noticed is that it matters how many followers or fans one has, as well as the content of the user(s). As the issue of social media is being covered, I wanted to bring to attention the incident involving Kehlani, Kyrie Irving and Partynextdoor due to their involvements with social media and how just one image tarnished Kehlani’s reputation. It was a misunderstanding and a twisted truth, more simply rumors, that resulting in Kehlani to try to attempt suicide. Many believed her to be cheating on Irving, and this goes back to not believing everything you read. Once somebody perceives a situation as they believe it to have happened, it can end in broken relationships or scenarios in which the truth cannot be detected. The public, not able to see directly into the lives of the users nor hear the conversations whence it happened, creates a need to see what you believe. The seeing what you believe is merely the pictures and posts and nothing else, creating a drawback in knowing who exactly to support. It creates a fabricated ideal of truth based upon the users who show their voice and it is often difficult to decipher the truth or the falsehood.

Events like these are the reasons certain people tend to stay away from social media or have misconceptions about it. For these reasons and more, it becomes a struggle to interpret a message without knowing the full story, and even if research is done, it can be flexed to make it turn in the favor of one over another. My mother’s best friend refuses to use one of the major social media sites for this reason. She thinks it is the devil and has little trust or faith in what gets posted out there. So I challenge the users to think hard….Thinking before you post or comment can be a hard thing to do, especially when one doesn’t think through the outcomes, which often happens. The ultimate outcome is something that was never thought possible and so one instantaneously types a message up and sends it based on their thoughts alone that inevitably creates a media frenzy that is unstoppable and propagated. Many users don’t work to find the truth. They just get caught up in the hype behind the propagating story.

Social media seems to have almost invisible strings attached, and the moment something is added about someone, everyone knows it and thus the control and vetting of truth is lost. So I challenge you to think and pause before you post or reply to a message. I encourage you stand by your beliefs but try not to get caught up in the hype of fictitious half-truths that can cause damage.