Becoming a Voyeur

 

                                               (image: youtube.com)

Pila kaw ka oras nagsuyong sa selpon?

You think that they are not active on social media since they are not posting anything. But they are there, scrolling and looking at each mistake others do on the virtual spaces. These are the modern-day voyeurs. They are the social media voyeurs.

A social media voyeur is the one who lurks in the shadows and uses social media as a means of peering into the lives of others (Fazio, 2014).

This one goes online to get the scoop on what’s going on with everyone else. Often these people will scroll through their news feed for hours, or you might find them following the accounts of multiple people especially those who have celebrity status.

Manochikitsa (counselling site in India) reported: Psychologically, voyeuristic tendencies can be driven by a desire for control, a sense of escape, or the fulfilment of unmet fantasies. The digital age has facilitated voyeuristic behavior by providing anonymity and accessibility through webcams, social media platforms, and explicit content dissemination.

When can we say that we are now falling into this category? Through self-assessment, and focused self-observation, you may notice that you are scrolling social media sites even if you are eating, attending a meeting or during conversations. When manners and social etiquette will be set aside in exchange of the sheer entertainment of knowing what others are doing, something is already wrong.

Is there an effect to the brain of doing this?

Social media-addicted individuals show poor skills in controlling or inhibiting their responses. Another aspect that deserves to be mentioned is the lack of attention. The constant lack of attention produced by the internet results in a phenomenon that some have explained as “distracted from distraction by distraction” (Abreu, Nabuco, ND).

Research studies suggest that people who are constantly online activate regions associated with language, memory, and visual processing in a lower intensity, that is, they do not display much activity in the prefrontal area.

Therefore, cognitive control processes will be hampered.

There is a need for awareness on this matter. The one who grimaces on such feedback and be on denial mode is already manifesting traits of addiction. Addicts do not accept that they are.

Instead of consuming too much information and become a voyeur to the lives of others, one can make the social media as a platform to create, inform and recreate. The mind is dependent on the individual who nurtures or damages it.