Is Social Media Toxic?

Facebook...

Twitter...

Tumblr...

Pinterest...

Instagram...

Snapchat...

Checking Facebook status updates, scrolling on Instagram photos, reading tweets, and the list goes on, it sounds pretty common in this digital world. But wait....!!

"Why are we doing that? Repeatedly everyday?"

I myself did the same thing too, refreshing Facebook, Instragram and Twitter everyday, without knowing why. Recently, I managed to shook off my addiction of scrolling on Instagram and keeping updates to tweets, but not Facebook, and Dayre, just not yet. 

Why I think social media is toxic?

I am a quite outdated person with no data plan in this digital world, and I purposely don't want to subscribe one, because I don't need it. My routine on weekdays are just piano practicing, and piano teaching on weekends. Do you like your piano teacher keep scrolling his/ her phone while teaching you? Well I see some teachers do that, and I feel bad for the student. In my teaching concept, students are not pay you to check updates on your social media or replying unimportant messages.



However I discovered there's one social media isn't ruining my daily life, but on the contrary, it helps me in my life. It's Dayre.

I am only learning with one private teacher, and often I feel lonely and helpless in my journey of music learning. I've no learning buddies, and no one to discuss with when it comes to music-related topics, or even seek for advises when I needed help in decision making. Since I joined the Dayre community, I met quite a number of musicians (mainly pianists) and music lovers via this apps, and since then, my life is changing. They are mostly Malaysians taking piano course at different sides of the world, and they truly open my eyes to the music world. 

Thanks to an encouraging Dayree, I made a major change in my life recently. I changed my piano teacher. It may not sounded like a big deal, but my previous teacher meant a lot to me, she helped me a lot in my piano teaching career, and she's also my current employer. So I was very reluctant to change a piano teacher, ignoring this Dayree's advice for quite some time. Thanks to her constant encouragement, I made my first step and went to look for a teacher that she recommended. I had total 3 lessons with my new teacher. The change is good, I've new inspirations, and new plans.

I'm very grateful to all the helps that I received from them, to sum it up: 

(screenshot from Day 316 on my Dayre : @emmz_s)

Thanks to another Dayree, she sent me plenty of informative videos and links, instead of just scrolling the phones on social media for God knows what reason, I'm tend to watch informative and inspiring videos, and read articles.

I even met with a Dayree! I never expected myself to meet with an online friend before!

(screenshot from Day 307 on my Dayre : @emmz_s)

Then I realized, social media is more than just showing off the good side of your life, chasing after likes and followers, or even stalking your friends or ex-girlfriend/boyfriend's life. It's about sharing the same interests or passions. 

It could be toxic, or useful, depending on how you use it. :)