Social media create a web through the entire society and thus connect us. On the other hand, artificial intelligence (AI) offers significant advantages as a tool to perform tasks more efficiently, but at the same time poses a much greater threat to individuals.
Social media and AI, especially in a team, have enormous power that can very easily put us in a position where our real self gets lost in our virtual self. Virtual reality By its primary function, social media is a place where the whole world comes together, allowing friends who live far away from each other to stay in touch or simply share aspects of their lives with others.
These platforms have developed so much in the past few years that they have greatly exceeded their original goal by creating a civilization for themselves, their culture, their way of behaving and, like any other civilization, they have created their own way of communicating.
Although communication is mostly in English, a specific jargon of social media has developed, which is understood only by people who spend a lot of their time on one of the platforms, that is, on social media. These jargons can be explained to some extent, but the essence often comes down to the phrase “you had to be there” in order to fully understand that simple word that has an unexpectedly complex background behind it.
Virtual friends and unconditional support On one hand we have social media that provides us with a visual representation of the virtual and real world and the ability to communicate with anyone in the world. On the other hand, there is AI that is increasingly taking on the role of a “friend”.
What do I mean by that? AI is a tool that was first used as an aid in writing essays, research, that is, it served as a tool for the most efficient execution of tasks, and it is still used to the greatest extent for these purposes. We are witnessing a global trend, although still in its early faze, it should not be ignored: people use AI for personal advice, for opinion, in short as a pen pal. Is it because they feel that AI won’t judge or do they simply need an objective opinion? I would say the answer is a combination of both. AI represents a safe space where we can express our authentic self, without judgment, but also receive objective feedback on a given topic.
At first glance a virtual friend sounds like a dream, but its flaw is very obvious: it doesn’t exist in the real world. Excessive use of AI in the context of a friend will inevitably lead to people closing in a “bubble” of some sort, which would be extremely difficult to pop.
A world without borders – Our fight knows no borders, biking to Strasbourg! Social media and AI allow us to travel the world without having to leave our city, the whole world is available to us with one click. Apart from visual travel, social media enables the travel of information on another level. We have been aware for a long time that each individual represents a medium for themselfs, their followers and, if they allow it, for the wider public. We are witnessing the student movement in Serbia, which managed to gather people in record time, who are ready to fight for their rights, for the government to take accountability and for the state institutions to follow the rule of law, with just one post on social media.
The best example of this is the already well-known tour to Strasbourg, which was realized in a little more than two weeks after the initial idea. They announced the call for participation on March 29, 2025, the test drive was scheduled for March 31, 2025, and already on April 3, 2025, eighty brave heroes and heroines where on two wheels to Strasbourg.
Not just quickly, but very quickly and surely, people all over Europe had the opportunity to hear about Serbian students and their demands. This is the other, definitely better side of social media, which allows such accomplishments to be realized and heard in the shortest possible time.
Description: The author of the photo is Gavrilo Andrić: Detail from the student cycling tour Novi Sad (Serbia) – Strasbourg (France)
April 27, 2025, Novi Sad, Serbia, Aradi Sonja Šara