Negative Effects Of Social Media

The past seven years have seen the rapid adoption of social media platforms by users all over the world, today there are more than 2.46 billion active social media users in the world . Social media enables users to consume timely news inexpensively, and allows them to further comment, share and discuss the news with other social media users, making news consumption on social media attractive to a large portion of these users. For example, a recent study by Pew research center found that 67% of American adults get news on social media . However, compared to primitive news media like radio and television, news in social media is easy and less expensive to produce and distribute and it is not fact-checked or filtered by a third party prior to dissemination. This has made social media a very attractive platform for fake news creators, i.e. news that is deliberately created to deceive the reader to believe something that is not true.

On the positive side, she points out that social media connects people, allows all voices to be heard, allows for work to be done from anywhere, and connects business to their customers. On the negative side, she argues that social media reduces productivity, can be addictive, reduces privacy, and allows for people to criticize everything. Her conclusion is that it is difficult to tell if social media is actually positive or negative as evidence exists for both sides of the argument. This article is useful for my paper because it contributes valuable information to inform both sides of the argument giving me evidence for both my position and for the position of

When thinking about a drug, most people think to substances like heroin and cannabis; however, there is new substance that has been sweeping nations. A drug is a substance that has a phycological effect when introduced to the body. Though people don’t think of social media as a drug, it has the same addictive side effects. Upon reading article “Addicted to Distraction” by Tony Schwartz, which talks about the addiction society has to social media and its effects, I realized what a drug social media is. This generation has experienced technology like never before, and it has led to advantages and disadvantages. Although social media can be fun, there is a developing addiction that has causes, effects, and solutions.

Social media is tool that combines the term social, which refers to the interactions that people have with each other when sharing and receiving information, and the term media, which refers to the instrument of communication. About 12 years ago was when Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace began started this reign of the social media taking over everyone’s lives. It connects us with the other parts of the world. Throughout this generation and the past ones, many have questioned if social media is the best thing around or if it’s doing bad to us. There are always two sides to everything, one always being the correct one, yet with this topic there isn’t, it just depends perspective on how you perceive it.

The article entitled, “I know who you are and I saw what you did” by Lori Andrews explains one of the major issues that the world of social media is facing is in protecting the privacy of the users. The creation of social media has changed the scenario of the world. It has opened new dimensions for people and is regarded as the most innovative and revolutionary creation of the 21st century which has played a significant role in globalizing the world. As much useful can social media be, one major phenomena is that no matter how protected the webs may be, social media has a much deeper and darker side where each user can be tracked and traced.

In today's world, people view social media as either a social benefit or a social detriment. Social media helps us with our day to day lives like helping people connect with one another, determine whether or not someone would be fit for a job, and allows us to have easy access to news, but it does have its downfalls. Some of these downfalls include cyberbullying, overexposure, and making us to addicted to our technology.

56% of Americans have a social media profile, in this statistic, more than half of Americans use this popular tool on the internet, but is the tool effecting us in a good way or a bad way? Social media, a tool used to communicate to your friends, family and others in a useful way, a thing that’s risen dramatically in the last decade, social media is a very useful tool to see what your friends or family are doing , but social media is also a very dangerous place if not careful enough, cruel people like cyberbullies or even identity thieves lurk around on social media websites.

Social media: something you love, or something you hate. It goes without saying, though, that social media has become an ever predominant feature within society- defined by the Oxford Dictionary as websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. The question I pose, however, is whether social media is now posing more harm than it is good.

Thesis statement: Social media is doing more harm than good in the society, hence the need for regulation.

The use of social media in modern life in unavoidable. Services like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are how we stay connected with friends and document our lives, for better or for worse. Young people are told countless times that we spend far too much time scrolling through newsfeeds and stories, but is there any genuine reason not to? While social media is helpful in countless way, it can also be detrimental to our wellbeing. There is a reasonable balance to be found between social media use and real life.

Some researchers have observed that the decline in the reading habits of students is as a result of technological innovations such as social networking. According to Agwu and Kalu (2011), the abuse of new technologies contributes to students’ poor reading. They opined that in this era of information and communication technology, the general orientation of young people has unconsciously changed from reading and the love of books to these new technologies. They further emphasized that people now live in the generation of ipod, laptop, iphone, facebook, twitter and other social networking sites, thereby reading has been literarily sacrificed on the altar of modern technologies. While social networking has become a staple of social interaction, therein lays a great deal of potential dangers. Marsh (2012) noted that social networking sites like every good things, has a flip side as well. Sites such as facebook, MySpace and Twitter can also have a negative effect. He relented that social networking are time-consuming as students are gradually becoming addicted to them. The hours and time spent on these sites is enough to be used to acquire knowledge rather such study and useful time is spent social networking. This is the reason Bature (2010 as cited Mbachu, 2011), pointed out that, “a white man once said if you want to hide anything from a Blackman, hide it in a book”. In other words, social networking is taking greater part of students’ studying hours and the negative effects

A lot of people say social media is ruining communication, promoting harmful habits, ruining people’s health, and does a lousy job at keeping their sites secure. On the opposing side of the argument, social media is claimed to be improving society. One example is by enhancing relationships, social media has been shown to provide useful skills and habits, can provide health benefits, and does a respectable job at keeping their sites secure.

The use of social media by athletes is observed more and more every year; both collegiate and professional athletes have large platforms, and many athletes choose to use social media accounts to communicate messages to bring awareness to a certain organization, show support for other athletes and teams, or to persuade fans to buy a particular product. Uniquely enough, athletes can send nonverbal messages on social media with the use of Instagram; and in addition to positive impacts of social media platforms, there can be negative consequences for athletes.

The ability to purposely manufacture a degrading, nasty, demeaning or insulting anonymous post or comment with surprisingly little consequences on virtually any and every platform (news sites, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) on the internet is possibly the worst social problem anyone can experience in social media technology today. There are so many negative and mean-spirited words, mostly categorized as “bullying”, written from behind the anonymity of a keyboard or touchpad. This type of on-line harassment is everywhere and decency in words seems to be on a fast-downward spiral on the internet.

The rapid growth of technology has become more dominant in our society than the 18th and 19th century. On average, the average person has five social media accounts and spends around one hour and forty minutes per day checking these social media networks (Davidson). In our society, social networking is a huge staple in most people’s daily lives. Oftentimes, people believe social media is an essential to their everyday lives. Social media does more harm to the average human being than it does good. Along with social media comes a decrease of productivity in the workplace setting, cyberbullying, and a decrease of social skills and face-to-face communication in adolescents.