A Digital Sisterhood

Context: A critical analysis of the necessity of social media for the present generation.

Problems associated with Social media:

• Increased isolation:  It rips apart our communities and “tribes.”
• Social media is full of predators and fakes: There are predators and fakes in the real world also.
• Social media is often considered as a substitute for physical networks: but social media tribes can never be substitutes for family or childhood pals.
• Fighting arena: People often get into battle mode over politics and religion.

Loneliness not only due to social media: 

• Loneliness isn’t merely a function of being physically alone: Loneliness is also a function of not being able to find people who understand you. 

• Globalization: also necessitates the need for connecting beyond our physical tribes.

• Generation Gap: There is a feeling that the present generation is less connected to their families and communities due to difference in ideas.

• Women were already facing emotional isolation: women who refuse to bow down to the old world order and refuse to fit in with cultural norms faced isolation.

• Normative isolation: Isolation was already felt by those individuals  who didn’t conform to normative ideas of social acceptance.

Benefits associated with social media:

• Connects with people who understand ones feeling: It helps to overcome the perpetual loneliness that is the bane of people whose ideas are vastly different from the physical communities.

• Helps the independent women: find and forge new solidarities.

• A supplement to physical networks is good: Genuine and meaningful engagements will make one feel less isolated and acts as a platform to share ideas and emotions (Emotional nourishment).

Conclusion: In a world that is increasingly becoming a mix of cultures, a mix of identities and a mix of selfhoods, we need a mix of multiple tribes to get through life that can be achieved through social media.