Despite their great benefits, social media cause cultural erosion. Let me shine some light on the terms “social media and “cultural erosion” before delving into this essay. Social media is an interactive, internet-based technology that engages people and enables them to interact with each other to share information, entertainment, and income-generating opportunities. Social media come in different forms and have varied effects. Some of the most prominent social media technologies include Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp. On the other hand, an erosion of culture is to drift away from one’s values and ethics, which are the cornerstone for any particular culture held by a certain society.
What constitutes a society’s culture? Material and nonmaterial aspects constitute a society’s culture. On the one hand, nonmaterial aspects include faith, values, traditions, and language. Values stem from faith and are the central point that one’s behavioural ethics revolve around. They shape that person’s conduct and attitude. Those faith-based values lead to justice, honesty, integrity, and kindness. Social media platforms, used by unprincipled individuals, are eroding most of these values by enticing individuals to engage in or create immoral content to gain something.
Out of political or social wrangle, some people partake in dirty discussions where they slander one another and defame their characters and cultural views. Because of the social media power, individuals living far apart lash out at one another for hours and hours. Seeing one another face to face, they argue and spit at each other, although saliva does not fall on either person’s face (thanks to the screen between them). The arguing individuals cross all boundaries and attempt to take each other down. Here, they utter all sorts of vulgar words, oblivious to the teachings of their faith and that such words are unsuitable to say. Unprincipled people’s offences, aided by social media, are not limited to an age group or gender, but transcend that boundary. They insult and slander both men and women, irrespective of their ages or their positions in society.
Without social media, such devious people would not be able to hurt other people who are thousands of miles away from them. Social media channels shrink the distance between the different parts of the world and enable its citizens to reach one another instantly. Taking advantage of that instant capability, unethical individuals lash out at their nemesis and make them taste all sorts of humiliation. They share and circulate fabricated or altered pictures of their nemesis to degrade them to the utmost extent. To humiliate one another, even couples share their immoral photos on social media after their relationship ends. Oblivious to their values, they do such things, disgracing themselves and their communities. They utilize TikTok, Face, Instagram, and Twitter (X) to cause indelible damage.
Social media tout rapid modernization and eat away at cultures. Nowadays, people, especially younger generations, are hooked up to social media irrespective of its varied platforms. They learn and adopt everything from there. As a result, they gradually drift away from their faith-based values and cultural norms. Promoted cultures on social media might be contrary to the youngsters’ cultural values, thereby heralding cultural erosion for themselves.
Some social media platforms enable users to generate income by posting beguiling, constant videos. And that is where another component of cultural erosion comes from. Some people do whatever it takes to make money. They create visual content that, at times, strips them of their values, traditions, and cultural norms. For instance, they generate unethical videos that appeal to a large audience. In that way, they can get a big number of views, and those views translate into financial gains in the end. Social media channels, such as TikTok, pay for original, short videos. And when the particular user’s videos and views take off, the user doubles down on creating more videos. That pattern goes on and on. Not focusing on any particular niche, unscrupulous users generate random content to maximize views and financial gains. Even some women take pictures of their poorly dressed bodies and post them online. Strangely, some audiences might like such images and cheer for them. When such immoral content awards the immoral user, the user accelerates their efforts to generate many more videos of that nature.
The amoral use of social media is detrimental to people’s cultures. Some people weaponize social media to hurt and harm other people. And social media platforms give them ammunition and encourage them to fight fiercely on rough battlegrounds. Other social media channels enable unscrupulous users to make money out of immoral images. Social media platforms are double-edged swords, and the immoral ones use them in the wrong way.