Infatuation with social media has led to, in some cases, death. I was shocked to learn that Aditi Gupta, a 13 year old girl from India, recently hung herself in her bedroom because her mother imposed a ban on her Facebook usage. It is claimed that Aditi spent too much time chatting online with her Facebook friends, and got upset with her mother’s demand to delete the account. The most striking concern with Aditi’s case is that she was essentially “socialising” online (although it does not state whether Aditi’s Facebook friends were people she really knew) but had such an unhealthy dependence on the social platform that she committed suicide at the thought of having to delete her account. A recent International Center for Media & the Public Affairs (ICMPA) study found that “students around the world reported that being tethered to digital technology 24/7 is not just a habit, it is essential to the way they construct and manage their friendships and social lives.” As Aditi’s case and the ICMPA study show, we are slaves to the technology we have created. Social media really is anything but.
Social Media: Anything But?
