Epigraph to Basics

Of all the organisms of Animalia kingdom, this one part as we name “Homo sapiens” is most penultimate creation ever found on this planet, so does in the universe, until proven wrong evidently. Human evolution started way back around 36 MYA (Million Years Ago), since then the course of their development has taken a formidable amelioration in contrast to the other organisms of the same kingdom, also organisms of the other kingdoms. We as a human being have attained multifarious dexterity in knowledge of subjects so does in action. One can even trace this to minute refinement of physicality of body in things like Precision Grip, Conducive Brain-Body Ratio, Maturation of Cerebrum and other biological aspects which make the humans supreme above all, which has led to establishment of relationships with self and the other things in most exorbitant versions ever. 

When we talk of Societies, it is aggregation of human beings in groups or ordered and organized communities, which have their own distinct culture, which encircles mélange of details such is Behavior, Rituals, Customs, Language, Beliefs, Attitudes, Arts/Drama/Music, Food and Faith/Religion, that too have subjective and topographic variations in themselves. 

These cultures too alter and aberrate with time due to changes that are not in our vicinity to circumvent and preserve, as the conservation of anything is rather an elephantine task, which fails all the times, because the Basic Principle of Evolution is Natural Selection, propounded by Charles Darwin, which states that only the most best and adaptive survives, rest collapses under the Wrath of Nature.

So, it is quintessential for any society to change with time to survive, and still one cannot evidently state the apotheosis of any society as it is continuously on move and amelioration. This continuous process has brought us to a contemporary state of advanced societies where we as human being don’t have to use the means of traditionalism to maintain a constant state of relationships with people, rather we are imbibed with most advanced means of technology to likewise do the same thing which required much efforts of degrading capacity. This advanced means of technology to conserve societies and culture and a utopic means of modern communication is what we call or is conventionally know as Mass Media, and our discussion for today is not Mass Media in generalized form rather its most fresh and widely used subdivision that being SOCIAL MEDIA.

We as Individuals make up a society and a distinct culture therein, hence here we specifically propound the idea of Impact of Social Media in Humans Life and Development (Humans, being the pillars of society), so one draws out inferences of the impact of same on societies after understanding the effects upon the Basic Structure of Societies, that being Human Beings.

When we talk of Human Development it happens in Phases or Stages, all stages happen in Sequential, Orderly and Compulsory way, and during each of these stages we as Human Beings develop in three aspects, that being, Biological Development, Cognitive Development and Socio-Emotional Development, influential factors too play upon, which are Genetic and Environmental. 

We will proceed to discuss the Impact of Social Media on the Human Development in each of these division of every stage of Human Development, so it gets very easier to draw out inferences about the impact of same in society as Humans being Basic Structure as we have proved earlier. Also, we will understand the both sides of use of social media and give a very constructive opine on changes we can make to enrich the society to its illustrious stage.

Impact of Social Media on Stages of Human Development 

Prenatal Stage: This stage encircles conception to birth, and here the one factor that plays crucial role in Biological, Cognitive changes is Genetic Factor, it is affected by maternal characteristics, our point of focus is the characteristic of Emotional State, if the mother uses social media highly on multitudinous basis, this may either impact her mental state positively or negatively that is subject, which may in turn galvanize a similar change in the state of the child. 

Infancy and Childhood: Years from (0-3) is considered the former, while (3-11) is latter, we are seeing an ascendant trend in the use of Social Media among both the stages and that too preponderantly, these stages are crucial for the development of  Sensory Modalities (7 human senses – Seeing, Listening, Tasting, Smelling, Feeling, Vestibuli, Kinesthesis), hence biologically, incessant use of Social Media at an age of life when its intricate to mature yourself biologically, can have a derogatory impact in form of an impasse in biological development is multifarious ways.

These stages too are crucial for maturing once Cognitive abilities, which can only be ameliorated through perfect synthesized use of Motor Mechanics, Attention, Perception and Learning through raw yet basic sources, and Social Media only attenuates this crucial development as well.

These stages are penultimate for understanding how an individual functions in society, which we jot down under Socio-Emotional aspects, this stage is when the kid constantly sensitize and experience the tangible environs of the vicinity so he/she can construct a meaning to the outer world, rather the impact of Social Media is that it circumvents and narrows down the experience to just the devise and is appallingly hampering its own skills to socialize convivially in the future which is inevitable, and hence he/she has to face it anyhow.

The stage of infancy/childhood is highly important for an overall growth in development and is also crucial for the showcase of erudition for next stage that is Adolescence, the most riveting and mesmerizing of all stages, because here the development of personality takes place, but if the infant/childhood is not fostered in a comely manner, which is not going to be if pestered with Social Media at such stage is unknowingly and with full culpability over parents just jeopardizes its next, big lifechanging stage.

Adolescence: This stage is from age between 11-17, this also is subjective, as it differs from person to person. Why is this stage called the “Zenith of Development”, as here the completion of Biological and Cognitive completes to its fullest! 

The impact of Social Media and its use, on Biological Aspect is minimal. But the IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON COGNITIVE ASPECT IS MOST FORMIDABLE OF ALL OTHER STAGES AND ASPECTS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT.

As an Adolescent, puberty is continuous bodily changes that incessantly goes on, but what is very intriguing is the incipiency of “IDENTITY CRISIS”.

“IDENTITY CRISIS” is a phase in an adolescent’s life wherein her constantly question himself on various aspects of self, like “Who am I?”, “What am I doing on this planet?”, “What will I become when I be an adult?”, and most important of all “What is my Identity”. These questioning part of adolescence is most different and is not found in any other stages, only further this is just refined but not the starting, as starting only happens at stage of adolescence.

Now to find answers to these questions the Adolescent looks out, to different Socializing Agents of society, the major for being – PARENTS, PEERS, INSTITUTIONS and MASS MEDIA.

The adolescent constructs his identity in all the four styles of agents above stated, he may do what’s told by Parents, Peers and Institution. But in this way, he is not independent of his own methods of construction and is narrowed down and can’t achieve its true potential. But with the advent of Mass Media and mostly that of Social Media, and the easy availability of Internet and Devises, the adolescent of contemporary generation, is not limited to the other sources of socialization.

Now here comes the turning part, Social Media is not supervised by an authority above adolescent, hence he very independent in his search, look up to create an identity from scratch. We the adolescent would freely confront, various other type of identity he would be too much confused and try to copy every identity found, one by one. But the problem is not in complying and instating, rather the problem lies in two facets.

• Subjective Context

• Derogatory Source 

We would take each one by one;

Subjective Context: Read a small story, “Kabir is a healthy individual, slender in contour and lives in a rural village in India, he uses social media a lot, and was intrigued by Bodybuilders from the western countries. He starts to exercise at his own home with pair of clay made dumbbells, and starts to eat all the vegetables and rural food, which they consider to be nutritional but lacks the whole amount of  Nutritional entities, Kabir works out very hard and 4 years passed from the day Kabir started working out, but not considerable results visible, he looks back at the Bodybuilders is very depressed and occasionally he develops psychological illness of BIGOREXIA, where he eats too much to gain size and nothing works still, in the end, he gives up upon his dream of building physique and is now also psychologically BIGOREXIC and DEPRESSED”

We hear these sorts of stories and mostly can even relate to them, the problem was not being aspirational, but not understanding the differences in the subjectivity of the context of what we aspire to be and what context which we are bestowed with. Hence this is very detrimental if an Adolescent encumbers themselves into this Subjective Error of Context, as this will impact them in a negative way.

Derogatory Source: Any medium which is negative and detrimental to the health and wellbeing of Adolescent is derogatory, but as adolescents don’t have a well-formed discretion to understand what’s wrong and right can be an issue with Social Media too. One may like to copy a thief, terrorist, charlatan on social media, without realizing the negative impacts on their personality.

It becomes crucial to use Media, in a balanced form at the stage of Adolescent of otherwise he/she may jump into the IDENTITY CONFUSION CYCLE, which happens when one is not able to fix his Identity Crisis properly.

Adult/Old Stage: The impact of social media on these stages is minimal, the only impact if sensed would be in Temperament and Social Displacement.

In Temperament, these ages may according to their experience of Social Media, turn out to be Aggressive, Irritable, Sad, Jovial, etc,

In Social Displacement, they may not spend time with their loved ones and the surrounding, which may impact their relationship with society, though  this Displacement can be traced in Adolescence and Childhood too, but it starts to impact this age the most.

Inquiry into the Origins of Quintessential Society 

The question yet unanswered is “How does social media impact society?”. I think the question is a bit vague and nebulous and is also abjectly unconstructive, because in the environment, everything one can see and not see, is changing the whole face of things talked of earlier (See and not see), as everything is interconnected, one should change the question and aberrate and ask, “How can we use social media towards a utopic society?”.

The whole idea is what type of societies we are aspiring to be and seek, if we seek an aggressive and appalling one, then I dare say we should bombard the wrongs of social media, and if we seek a utopic and perfect one, then I propound that it should be convivial and intellect building one.

Social Media can impact society in a horrendous and herculean way because it is the newer, trending socializing agent in the world, but it is up to our discretion to use it in the ascendant or descendant way.

John Stuart Mill in his essay on “Liberty” said, “Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign”, hence it’s the human that decides what he/she aspires to be and hence we must allow their liberty, but still the question remains unanswered “What Impact Social Media Plays”, which can never be answered unless, the World itself stops changing, which is indeed inevitable.  

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Mukul Sharma

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