Social Media

Hi all. I’m in my 20s but not a huge fan of social media, but I’ll be honest, I still have social media accounts while I don’t post photos of myself. I recently got married and have noticed something very disturbing. Most of the vendors have either been super pushy to post content about our wedding on their instagram profiles, or posted our wedding videos/photos without our permission and consent, to the point where I had to formally ask that they remove the posts for the sake of our privacy. This just makes me think about the world and what it is coming to. People are reduced to impressions. Everything is made for Ads. The video of our first dance that was posted online on the venue’s instagram page, had a bookings link in the captions. It just made me think about how everything at this day and age is viewed as a product that can be used to promote their business, even if it violates someone else’s privacy. Somehow, the vendor ethically justified in their mind that sharing someone’s private video of their wedding (which they hadn’t shared with us) is a non-issue as long as they can reduce them to an opportunity to run an Ad for their business. Social media and what it does to people, concerns me. I’m surprised people don’t feel the same way as I do, and I’m often the odd one out. It’s so violating. The venue rep was actually appalled that I was so sensitive and annoyed that I hadn’t told them before they posted. How would I have known, if they posted it without my permission or checking with me?

It’s quite complex because I want nothing to do with social media, but at the same time, had I not been on there, I wouldn’t have seen that the vendor posted my video and requested that they take it down. This was a specific example, but I generally really struggle ethically with social media and what it reduces people to and am keen to hear people’s thoughts about this, and how they’re adjusting to life these days, where socials are intrusively a part of our lives.