In today’s society, the majority of our communication is done via social media. Calling, and of course writing letters are fading away, so you might start wondering if social media is controlling our lives. People say social media can be good and bad, but when do we know which is which? Do we realize it’s bad when we get distracted and run a gel electrophoresis for too long or we have 10 minutes to submit a research proposal? Well, I believe social media is just a tool, we can use it to look up how to write a good research blog post on YouTube or we can spend hours looking at snapchat stories for fun; as you can see, it depends on how we use it.
I personally love social media; I believe it’s a gateway that can help us to remove our mind-set from research and frustration that each failed experiment brings. But everything has a limit. So to my original question, social media is good until we overuse it. For example, Facebook is one of the most famous and used social media platforms in the world, and if you ask any UCSB student they would tell you that checking Facebook is in their daily tasks; students can sell their stuff, from selling girl scout cookies to textbooks. It’s a form of communication between all students at UCSB. So as you can see we can’t just say social media is bad and we should delete all of them to dedicate our time/focus on research. This is why time management is the key, since working excessively in the lab is actually not ideal. So let me ask you: do you really want to learn how to manage your time, or simply just delete all your social media in order to save time?
I believe social media can change a person’s life, just like what it did to me. I always wanted to influence people to reach their goal or optimal level in their educational journey, but I needed a platform so I could have a chance to talk to people around the world. YouTube was exactly the piece of the puzzle I was looking for, so I created a YouTube channel (ErfMed). Of course my first three videos are still embarrassing to me, but as soon as I saw my views escalating from 100 to 1000, I knew I can reach my initial goal. After seeing people that I have never met in my life commenting on my posts and seeing that they appreciate my advice, there was no better feeling.
We all might have crossed this question “What do you really want in this life?” well, I want to stand for something big and if I can be a person that can change a person’s life and for them looking up to me as their leader, what better thing can I even ask for.
It’s always amazing to walk around UCSB campus and see highschool students looking at you awkwardly, before they come up to you and say “Excuse me, are you that youtube guy?”, and I always laugh, because I did not think I would be recognized in such a big school. But hey they don’t say “small world” for no reason. Anyways, I can talk about my youtube channel for days, but the main point that I am trying to cross here is that social media can be used in so many different ways; and I believe all of us can use social media wisely. So please, I encourage you to check out my social media to join my journey:
Youtube: Erfmed →
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erfmed/?hl=en