Social Media has lead to snow bowling hate effect.

2000's

Since the rise of social media, we have seen facets of people we would have never thought existed before. Social media started in the early 2000's. The first social media to reach a million monthly active users was the famous MySpace: A Place for Friends.

MySpace was the early facebook, where one could invite it's friends and chat with them, you then had a circle of friends.

The concept of sharing came to life.

2003

In 2003, Linkedin came to life. A platform created in order to give users a place to post their resume, to send private messages to people... all of that within a business oriented perspective. The concept is a brilliant idea, as they are getting people closer within the sphere of "work", they are also helping millions of people find work everyday. On the other hand, it is once more a way of sharing more and more informations.

We now are able to have friends online and talk to them, as well as display our entire career on the web.

2004

Facebook is launched by Mark Zuckerberg along with his Harvard friends. The site was initially created in order for men of the campus to browse through a selection of women, and then send them messages in order to meet. Like an old dating website.

Facebook is now one of the biggest platforms of social media with over 1.6 million people.

We have been able to share our social life, share our business and now our women!

2005

Marks the birth of Youtube. A platform on which users can upload and share videos. Anyone is now able to film him/herself anywhere in the world, create an account and upload.

We have reached a new concept of sharing, people can film anything they like, their homes, themselves, their pets... and post it online to be viewed by the entire world.

2010

Is the launch of Instagram which was, at first a social platform for one to share simple pictures, has now become the "showing off" platform.

Instagram has taken a form no other social media has. Where people now have jobs off of the app. There are people whose job title is to be an Instagrammer. That's how far the showing off game has gone.

2011

Was the launch of Snapchat. Snapchat is an image messaging app. An app where one is able to communicate through sending images. This is an entirely new concept and is still booming today, being the 2nd most used app in the United States today.

The rapid increase in sharing we have seen in only 10 years has it's negatives as well as it's positives.

We are now able to share about anything that is going on in our lives, in a photo or video format and send it to anyone in our contact list within seconds.

Of course, if you look at it from the bright side, many people see social media as a good thing. You can contact people within seconds and send them just about anything with a choice of 5-6 different apps. For people like me, who have moved countries many many times and have been to many different schools, the concept of being able to contact someone I haven't talked to in years might seem stimulating. It is also interesting to able to share just about anything. For instance, just yesterday, in quick seconds I was able to send a video of where I am quarantining to my childhood friend I haven't seen in years.

Social media has also enabled many to find a job, a career, a path in life. You are now able to create an account whether it be business or personal, and reach a large audience. You can share through visuals which always helps to envision better. Social media also enables to keep a close connection with your "followers", many people have now regular jobs of being Instagrammers. These people's lives revolves around sharing perfect pictures in all places they go. This also creates an interesting flux of income as something very popular these days has become the "paid partnership". Instagrammers are contacted by a brand, hair, makeup, clothes... and are asked to do a product placement, where they show themselves using the product. As they have millions of followers, this product then reaches a broader audience, and gets more profit.

There are many advantages to social media.

However, it turns out the disadvantages are more severe.

With the important increase in sharing, people now see everything of each other's lives, your companion, your house, your dog, where you travel, what your car looks like... And this is still an entirely new concept. Only 10 years ago, you could only know as much about a person if this person was your friend, family or your neighbor.

By all means, with sharing comes jalousy. This is pure human logic.

For instance, if you happen to come from a rather poor background, and you don't live in a big house, don't have a nice car but have a phone. What happens once you download Instagram for free and end up seeing everyone's nice life. As a human you feel some sort of jealousy or resentment. I personally believe this is why so many people follow the famous "Instagrammers", as they envy what they have.

Nonetheless, with jealousy comes hate.

Social Media is the cause as to why we hate so much. I find we are in a society that easily criticizes, due to the simplicity of the task. Social Media has made us dislike, judge, be mean, for no reason. It is so easy to drop a comment on a photo you feel jealous about, the person will never know who you are, and will never track you down. Cyberbullying through hate speech affects 700,000 teenagers every year.

Social Media has created a society which hates, easily, on anything. And that is the main issue with sharing too much, it is easy to criticize.

By Ninon Barou