Freedom of Speech gave us the right to be heard, but social media has turned that right into a sense of devious entitlement. The attitude no longer is, I have to be heard, it’s I will be heard. Beneath the superficial, social media has provided the masses with a microphone and a stage to spew their criticism-which has unleashed an air of arrogance to our First Amendment.
Must Read: 5 Reasons Black People Use Instagram & Twitter More Than Anyone Else
Scroll down your timeline or newsfeed and you’ll see a bevy of redundant posts. Everything from the fitness fanatic’s about-to-work-out post to the holier-than-thou religious received-that-good-word post is all over social media.
Social media raised the bar with the phrase “everyone’s a critic.” Having a soapbox moment was a burden only friends and family had to bear. They were the victims of one’s latest woes or whatever pseudo epiphany one waxed poetic about. But social media changed all that. Everyone’s assessment, evaluation, judgment, appraisal or analysis now becomes public knowledge.
In October 2012, Facebook announced the site had reached one billion active monthly users. (That number’s increased to 1.2 billion as of February 2013) That’s the same amount of people that occupied the earth in 1804. (Crazy, right?) Currently, human population hovers around seven billion. So about 17% of folks ON EARTH use FB.
US News reported in May 2012, people typically spend an average of 30% to 40% of their day, talking about themselves. That number doubles to 80% on social media.
