We used to make effort to keep up with our closest of friends,
Now we contact so many at once, its far too easy to take them for granted.
Hours spent talking and planning to meet no longer seem like efficient ends.
These new platforms mean meeting and talking are now totally supplanted.
We are now pressured to keep up with everyone we ever met,
Desperate to have new views and new content that we can share.
Obsessing about views or how many likes that we get,
Quantity of friends rather than quality now seems to be the primary care.
People we never wanted to see again that were always too much,
No contact in decades and still no contact now.
The bullies from school that now really must stay in touch,
They now know exactly what we do, they why when and how.
The urges to check in and reply to posts just as soon as we wake,
We want to be the first to post the latest big thing, that we agree to or doubt,
Not taking time to think before posting can be such a mistake,
We respond to every post so quickly for fear of missing out.
Responding too fast to choose the correct words with care.
All cues of intent or meaning are dispersed in the data stream.
Showing how much we care seems dependant on how quickly we respond or share.
A Medium where tone of voice is lost its hard to tell what we really mean.
Relationships easily soured that were so important to us for decades,
Intentions misread thanks to the way words typed in haste can be taken.
Innocent words we forget can be taken in a light that cast uncomfortable shades,
Our confidence in what we try to say to loved ones sorely shaken.
People are now saying things they don’t believe just to spark an online fight,
No cares about the speed that lies and disinformation can now spread.
Cowardly keyboard warriors with diminishing concepts or what is wrong or right.
No fact checking to speak of, the truth behind in the dust, left for dead.
We repeat as fact what we were told “By a mate down the Pub”,
Burying uncomfortable truths we just don’t want to perceive.
Shout it loudly over the facts and drown them out just to “be In the club”,
Replace those truths with convenient lies we would seemingly rather believe.
A place for new friends and old friends to happily get together and greet.
Perverted by sick groomers, scammers, criminals, trolls to spout their cowardly abuse.
Envisioned as a safe and friendly place for us all to come together and meet.
Used to destroy lives, to steal our possessions and identities, to tear down and confuse.
Social Media casually breaking the strongest friendships and bonds without a care.
Social Media can be dangerously manipulated and that is sadly true.
Social Media, be careful how much of yourself that you share.
Social Media its called but the opposite is honestly what it seems to do.
