A victim is a person who suffers from a destructive or injurious action or agency. They may suffer from the dishonesty of others, or by some impersonal agency. Victimization, according to the dictionary, is “to single (someone) out for cruel or unjust treatment.”

As individuals, we can sometimes find ourselves, because of our personal beliefs, emotions or ignorance, becoming the perpetrator of our own victimization. Social media, in my opinion, has enabled individuals who tend to feel victimized by their family and society, with a powerful tool that will either help them overcome their victimization mentality or keep them feeling they are victims who will remain victims. 

As of June 2017, Facebook, a social networking service, has two billion monthly active users. Twitter has over 319 million active users. One meaning of the word social is “relating to or designed for activities in which people meet each other for pleasure.” The definition of social media as a noun is “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.” Its set-up to exchange information and make contacts on professional or social levels. The goal is to have a fun way to interact with people.

Social media sites are so popular that President Donald Trump can’t seem to stop using Twitter to express his feelings of being persecuted by the media and press. What are we coming to in America when our elected President can’t seem to stay off Twitter social media sites late at night. The world sees our leader, I’m sure, as very insecure. I mean, really.

How secure can you be if you are the most powerful person in America, have your own presidential press crew, have direct access to the world through every radio, television and media sites available, yet you choose to tweet in 140 characters or less your displeasure of statements made by actresses and anyone that doesn’t agree with your decisions. Our president tweets his daily agendas. He tweets his negative feelings about everything on Twitter. Our president is a social media “junkie” who spends a lot of time on social media sites being the victim. 

I wonder why President Trump feels the need to be “liked” so much? Maybe it’s because he has a background as a television personality. Maybe it’s because he probably doesn’t think he would have very many “friends” if he wasn’t “Trump” a wealthy man with a lot of power because of the many companies he owns. President Trump seems to feel he is the victim of the press. He has banned the press from meetings he has held. He has accused the press of spewing “fake news” regarding his actions before and as President. He has fired people who he feels may have banned against him with the press. He comes across as a person who only wants “yes men” in his “business” and make no mistake, I believe that the presidency of the United States is just that to President Trump, a business venture. 

The approval ratings for President Trump haven’t been very good since April 2017. I’m sure that the rating that concerns him the most is the drop-in approval ratings from white men who were his strongest demographic base. It was a drop from 58 percent to 49 percent. A man who sees women as sexual objects, I’m sure, could care less about approval ratings from women, and minorities, however, a drop-in approval from the men who control America, is something that would cause concern. Maybe that’s why our President spends so much time on social media, trying to get some type of immediate gratification from “instant” likes that he gets from Twitter users.

He can fool himself into believing that the public “likes” him, “they really like” him. He can continue to play the “victim” who is “victimized” by the media, the Obama “lovers,” the illegal immigrants and any and everyone who doesn’t believe that Trump way is the best way. 

My question is this: are we also being victims who are victimized when we stay glued to our smartphones and computers strolling through social media feeds liking and sharing posts and tweets from others? Are we becoming victims who are being victimized by social media tools that we seem to be addicted to, checking every time we hear a ding from a notification?

Checking our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media sites the moment we wake up and before we go to sleep at night? Are we not also slaves to the social media hype? I think we are becoming a society that will be hunched over, visually impaired, have disabilities in our hand and limited social and interpersonal skills. How do we fight this new victimization of our time, thoughts and interactions with others? It’s simple. Log off.