Meedi Mydi Media “Mo”
I scour the pages of friends and foe
Night and day, a restless soul
I cascade into a virtual hole 
Betwixt my Egyptian sheets
My body aches, my eyes bulge 
Fingers scaling, skin peeling
My head vibrates, ping pong po  

I voyageur into a universe of unknowns
A world of pixels, a dream of fictions
I swipe away, I tick tock toe
I eagerly consume the tales of joy
I make believe, my mind my corpse 
Rot tot tot, I slowly age, I cry alone 
Its echoes heard across the memes
Forever impaled on Insta’s feed!

Reiss Haidar, 01/11/2020

Social Media is destroying our children

Clearly, I’m not talking about myself, but I’ve noticed an inordinate amount of young people are hooked on social media, the most understated of addictions. Some social media apps are as bad as being addicted to cocaine, heroin, gossip and alcohol. People are now living their entire lives online, comparing themselves to others, being triggered by posts and pictures not necessarily directed at them, consuming fictions and fantasies.

This is not going to end well.

Social Media is arresting the intellectual development of young people to have normal experiences and relationships. It can not yeild wellbeing. It invidiously destroys the confidence and mental health of those who are already vulnerable. Our young people need to go back to the old days when friends were real; I mean that literally, when they were actual living beings, and not virtual persons evolving through pixels, cleverly manipulated to present realities that are seldom real.

For reflective young persons, they should have the confidence to walk their own path in life. They should turn to the world of books, fiction and non-fiction, art, music and poetry, meditation and reflection. They should travel and experience directly new cultures and peoples, being open-minded to the endless possibilities the real world offers. They will find escape from a virtual world that is designed to mislead them into becoming the froth of bandwagons and consumers for other people’s greed.

Social Media has been designed to make people feel elated because of the effects of dopamine; initially, people feel they’re part of something bigger and better only to realise that they are solitary creatures losing themselves.

Today’s social media influencers, the “Hi Guys” of cyclical mantras have become products of Big Business, they can’t offer their followers well-being anymore than they can achieve it for themselves through the messaging they promote unwittingly.

Social Media has become toxic. Time to ditch the apps and detox. Time to leave the virtual bubbles and anonymous fake accounts to their own devices!

I promise you, you’ll feel much better.

Social media urged to take ‘moment to reflect’ after girl’s death

The children’s commissioner for England has accused social media companies such as Facebook and Snapchat of losing control of the content carried on their platforms, telling them that recent teen suicides should be a “moment of reflection” for the way they operate.