Former US President Barack Obama said social media platforms can lead people to make snap judgements about complex decisions,

“Social media is a really powerful tool for people of common interests to convene and get to know each other and connect.

“But then it’s important for them to get offline, meet in a pub, meet at a place of worship, meet in a neighbourhood and get to know each other.

“It’s also, by the way, harder to be as obnoxious and cruel in person as people can be anonymously on the internet.”

Obama was speaking on BBC Radio’s Today show aired on Wednesday morning in the UK .

“One of the dangers of the internet is that people can have entirely different realities, they can be just cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases,” he added.

I rarely use Facebook and I have never ‘Twittered’.

I agree with everything the former US President said.

For many years here in Cayman, well before social media took hold, we had ‘The Cayman Marl Road’. A pre-runner of our now ‘Fake News’. Even now we have a website called ‘Cayman Marl Road.’ For those who visit it, the title should warn you what to expect.

Two generations ago was I misinformed as a child and then part of a group of adult sheep?

Is there too much information now and zero knowledge?

When I see how the media I used to trust distort the news to bias it the way the writer or the company he works for wants, I query, has it always been this way?

However, reading is still better than looking at headlines on social media and getting involved in an argument.

Hearing the news read out aloud is so much better. The whole news and not the abbreviated bits that someone else has deemed to be the main points.

An exclusive analysis of a given topic is seldom anything more than the writer’s personal opinion.

If we rely on social media for our news we will only have a small pond of doubtful knowledge. We will lose the sea that surrounds us.

Writer, Charmi Trevadia, who admits to being a social media addict, never-the-less knows the pitfalls of it. She writes:

“…if we want to create a future, we must understand the lessons of the past and avoid falling into the traps of the present. There will always be a difference of opinion, theories, justifications and emotions. The important thing is, will we be able to look at ourselves with same single-mindedness and be able to choose our battles? Will we be able to look at our personal histories and say that we made informed choices, or will we be robots at the hands of destiny as defined by social media?

“If we get this right, we just might escape being slaves our past and instead become masters of our future!”

I will never be a slave to social media, I rarely use it, but I am glad it exists. It is progress. It can even be a blessing. Like everything, unfortunately, it can create stress and it can be addictive. Look at our young, from the youngest to the near adult, most are slaves to it. I should have added ‘and US President Trump’!