I’m really tired of seeing how many young people present themselves on social media to generate attention. What I find even worse is that many young girls and boys see influencers as idols and want to try to look like them. Be it the clothes, the hair, the body or the trappings (hotels, villas, sea, beach, exoticism, adventure).
Not everything is bad about social media. But with the new mainstream apps like Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok and, most recently, BeReal, it’s no longer about connecting, as it was thought to be back then. These are multi-billion platforms where influencers cash in by spreading dumbing down content.
In principle, what is only praiseworthy about Tiktok and Instagram is that you can find out interesting stories here in a nutshell, since all companies and organizations as well as state institutions now communicate via these channels: ARD, ZDF, for example, post videos every day with exciting insights into a documentary or similar .or as a student you can find out important information about your degree program or job offers, etc.
Since this helpful information, along with really instructive formats such as cooking or sports exercises, make up a rather small part — it depends on how you feed your algorithm — I think there needs to be a social debate about it and young people should simply be told earlier how bad the influence of the internet can be on young minds.
You might think that information is never bad, but it is when it takes up space for really helpful information.
So who’s going to declare war on social media — to put it less bluntly, who’s going along with using less social media and going back to the old ways of education like the newspaper or the 8 p.m. news?
