“Anger always comes from frustrated expectations”. Elliott Larson
Expectations are – simply put – the building blocks and the breaking points of everything in life.
Expectations Only Lead to Disappointment!
Whether in the way we conduct our personal lives or business wise, expectations usually have the power to strengthen or hinder efforts and in turn influence any outcomes either positively or negatively.
Hundreds, no, thousands of books and articles were published about various subjects pertaining to expectations all around us. The main reason for these publications is to prepare individuals for what they might face in certain situations or during specific events or cases and how to deal with them accordingly.
Social Media Expectations: The good, the bad & the ugly!
Preconceptions about a certain concept, person, place and so on have the ability to cause confusion. This is because the human mind conditions itself to a certain way of dealing with things based on prior expectations. Thus, if the expectations are not met, the mind usually refuses to change its perceptions and whatever is at play might lose its credibility and attractiveness element.
Therefore, I thought I would prepare a list, divided into 3 categories: the good, the bad and the ugly. The main purpose of this list is pointing out everything one must expect to encounter through his/her use of social media channels, tools and platforms.
1. The Good…
“Social media might be the devil but is not the reaper!” Do you remember this statement? It was the title of a previous post of mine and it sure does apply here. Almost nothing in life is 100% bad or good. This can be practiced when utilizing social media channels and tools.
Here are a few good things can expect when using social media, in an appropriate and organized manner. Take a look:
- Learning New Things: Personally, I have noticed a notable positive change in my pool of knowledge since I have started being a regular social media user. Not only did my overall know-how about different topics expand, it deepened as well. On average, I am exposed to over 100 articles per day with more than 40% of them being both interesting and informative. Thus, based on that, if your aim is to learn more, social media can be your answer!
- Meeting Quality People: Though online relationships are not always safe or guaranteed, this can also be the case with the people we meet anywhere and at any given time. Social media can allow you to formulate relationships with different people around the world who come from different cultures and have different backgrounds and experiences to share! Also, social media has the power to provide you with leads of potential customers and so on.
- Making a Difference: Do you feel that you want to contribute to your society or help with environmental issues? Do you want to make a difference in other people’s lives? Social media can help you achieve that easily through a variety of cause related discussions, features and campaigns.
Social Media Tools & Channels
- Expanding Personal Horizons: When you find yourself being exposed to various topics, different thoughts, creative ideas and different personalities, you are more able to grow. I truly believe that social media has the power to expand its users’ horizons in terms of thinking, evaluating and decision making!
2. The Bad:
- Stumbling Upon the “Wrong” People: Whether they are perverts, crooks, stalkers, biased or just spammers, social media open the door for you to interact with these people, those who you would rarely meet face-to-face. Yet, don’t let this frustrate you! There are good people out there too!
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Be Ware of Spam!
Being Subjected to Spam: Just as you might learn new things while using social media, you might also be subjected to spam and even become a victim of it. Therefore, you carefully choose whom you follow and what links you click on and open to avoid hacks and viruses as well as offensive content.
- Having to Tolerate Repetitiveness: If you become a regular social media user, you will need to tolerate repetitiveness! Some social bookmarking sites and others tools such as Twitter allow for duplicate information to be publicized.
3. The Ugly:
- Privacy Issues: It should come as no surprise that the more you use your name and information publicly, the more you are exposed to privacy breaches and phishing attacks. Social media is the hub of those incidents, especially if you are not careful with what you share and with whom.
- Turning Users into Targets: When abused, social media has the power to turn its users into targets to theft and other offline offensive acts of vandalism or threats.
- Losing Touch with Reality: Some people have the ability to lose touch with reality when abusing a certain substance or tool. Social media can cause that as well as other mentally related issues and complications.
The Tip of the Iceberg!
No two experiences can be exactly the same. Yet, when we at least have some kind of true to what we are dealing with, we are less prone to disappointment and confusion.
Finally, I’d like to ask you a few questions: Do you think the good outweighs the bad when it comes to social media utilization? Can you share with us a few good, bad and ugly stories experienced via social media?
Looking forward to your comments down below! :)
Socially yours: