Social Media in the 21st Century Space  

Think before you click! 

Cliché but true. A simple warning to individuals dealing with social media. 

In this highly modernized world, where most are undeniably fastened in technology, the influence of social media is utterly vast. But does everyone know their limits? 

Last Wednesday, February 26, the Midshipmen Fleet Officers conducted a seminar entitled "Digital Citizenship Awareness and Responsible Use of Social Media", at SMET Mess Hall. The seminar aimed to help students to be aware of their digital footprint on social media. 

Mr. Ray Marticion, the speaker of Digital Citizenship Awareness challenged everyone to re-evaluate themselves and assess who and where they are now in the online space. 

Each one of us uses the internet and now engages in social media. It could be of different purposes such as entertainment, business or academic-related matters. The thing here is that social media has a double effect on human beings. While its availability has captured the interest of millions of people, a single click may cause a backfire wherein you’ll have to face consequences. There will always be two sides of a coin — the beneficial and not. 

The question is, are you aware of those effects? Are you mindful enough of what you have posted and shared? 

Know that social media has the power to control people. By controlling, means there is a tendency that it will become a hindrance to doing a job. It could even damage or destroy people’s lives. There are lots of consequences if we are not going to utilize these modern means of communication responsibly. As a matter of fact, social media has a direct impact on the mental well-being of an individual. According to the speaker, the unintended effect of social media on our mental health is anxiety, depression, and stress to the students where they can't properly participate in class because of those unwanted happenings that occur to them due to cases such as cyberbullying and blackmailing. 

This is to open the eyes of the masses, the cadets of SMET specifically, to be responsible enough in using such online platforms. Sharing videos, photos, memes and other mainstream media that people can’t seem to avoid any undesirable treatment from other people, thus, guarding yourself is a must. Think before you post because you don't know how other people may conceive it. We, as users, need to come up with precautionary strategies on how we can help lessen these ill-effects of social media. The very simple yet best action is to contemplate before sharing. Our responsibility begins within ourselves. 

Remember, to use social media is not wrong; how we use it is the case we need to deal with. 

𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘍𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴. . .