I know that the title might say my preference, but still I think I have to write a few words about it. Just to satisfy my needs to reach out to all with my argument regarding those powerful social tools. Yes tools and not lifestyles like most people I know think they are. You will still be alive if for some reason they stop working or the internet ceases to exist. Alive but empty I'm afraid.
If you don't use either of those then please stop reading this post now because I am neither promoting social media nor am I ready to explain what they. Unless you want to follow me then by all means do sign up and follow me for a wonderful spin around the block for my pleasure. Now that this is out of the way I can actually begin with my argument.
If my memory serves me right it seems Twitter was the first to exist in the great internet galaxy, and then Instagram came to be. Regardless of who came first, Twitter was the first to be rocketed into a legendary status. At least here in Bahrain and maybe the region. Twitter really picked up the pace here when we had the so called Arab Spring come knocking on our door. People flocked by the thousands to Twitter for information and the latest juicy news about what is happening just a few kilometers away from you. Plus it was providing people with two major things. First the quick flow of information and news regarding any perceived danger, be it police patrols or protesters with fire in their eyes. Secondly it was giving us the news and information that no news agency was providing either through censorship or through biased propaganda. Simply put, it was people who were creating the news and spreading it through the phones of those looking any scrap of news to give reason to their panic.
Twitter gradually went out of the limelight when things started to be more docile here in the country and people became fed up or immune to all the molotov fires or tear gas canisters. Also it is worth mentioning that there was a systematic containment of twitter political celebrities for fear that those could be a powerful loos cannon that might be a threat to the establishment. Plus of course twitter did not improve much on its basic concept so that might also have become tedious to some. Again I mention that this is my view on the argument from the prospective of the region and specifically Bahrain, not a detailed review about those two social medias.
Enter the powerful picture in the mix. Instagram with its nice addition of simple photo editing tools have given people the chance to think that they are true photographers and no less amazing than the professional ones. Of course there is also the famous quote "One picture is worth a thousand words." It seems some really take it literally because they take a picture, post it on instagram and then stay silent as if to say that my picture says it all. Then we see the people who mostly benefited from it were those promoting their products or paddling for knickknacks. But they seem to insist on following us as well, for some reason they need to poke around our little worlds just as much as they need us to buy their stuff. So you see, instagram does not need reading which might be a source of great headache to some people around us it seems, and a greater source of gossip about each other than twitter can provide. Perfect tool for the regional mindset.
Now, my argument is that twitter at least still can provide information in a simple, quick way rather than flipping through endless drivel of advertisements and dishes of sweets and crying children before you might stumble upon a post that might peak your interest. Plus it seems we have developed the need to "like" all pictures of our friends and relatives even if the picture did not convey any meaning at all, or else we seek the wrath and frowns of people coming up to you and asking you why you won't like their pictures in front of all to see. Adding to that I only use it as a catalogue for interior design ideas and an album of calligraphy art that I am most interested in. Twitter on the other hand provides me with literature for when I cannot afford the time to spare, news about the latest events as it happens, and connection with like minded people who enrich my mind and soul rather than just seek to contain their social wrath. And that is simply why I am mostly on twitter and not as much on instagram.
So in the end I argue that if it is personal gossip then please count me out of it, for in here I seek motivation, knowledge, and a smile to get me by another rat race day.
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