Social Media and I

I never studied communications formally. My college degree is in Sociology and even my MBA major is in Human Resources.

Communications happened to choose me. Ever since I was placing candidates in the animation industry for my first job, I was intrigued with the new media - blogs, social media platforms, websites. When I'd see the students work wonders on software and create beautiful graphics out of nowhere, I remember I'd feel jealous. 

The only mode of communications I've ever been slightly good at, is writing. Because words are all I have. And also because I can hide behind them, and not show my true feelings when needed. Writing helped me build my career in a field I fell in love with. I've learnt everything I know about this field on-the-job, picking up on trends, studying on the web, trying my hand at design software by looking it up on Google, and just generally being curious.

I remember offering to help with social media during a team review meeting. I was just trying to be nice because the team was short-handed at that point in time. But inside, the excitement I felt was telling me a different story about myself. What I didn't know was that this was going to be the turning point in my career. When I started working with digital and social media, I knew I'd found THE ONE. And thus began my love story with work. 

That was 2015.

In the recent years, social media has drawn a lot of attention for all the wrong things. From spewing hatred to spreading rumours, from online harassment to trolling, and more. I started questioning my love then. And I realised, we all have both sides to us - the good and the bad. My love refused to give up despite several heartbreaking moments.

And along came 2020. With it came a historic mass movement, a pandemic and a slew of controversial content. The scale of these were unprecedented. Social media was overflowing. My faith was wavering again. I started staying away.

Cut to, April 2021. The second wave of COVID-19. Even more powerful and devastating. The battle of a lifefime. And to this fight, social media rose. From providing information, to arranging necessary services, to getting help for and from strangers, to influencers using their popularity and network, to arranging hospital beds, medicines, blood, ambulances, OXYGEN, food, to comfort people who lost valuable pieces of life and just to showcase the power of humanity. Social media provided the platform we all needed at the most crucial time of our lives.

And I fell in love again. Because this is what I had set out to do from day one - my only aim is to bring positive change through communications. When used well, communications has the ability to bring transformational change. And the onus of intention will always remain with us humans. 

I will always choose to remember the good we achieved with the help of social media in the past few months. And I will hope that memory will continue to inspire us to use it for the right reasons.