Negative Effects Of Social Media

Next time you are out in public, notice how many people are immersed in their cellular devices. I bet you will see a lot, and most likely these people are on their social media accounts. According to Brooke Lusk, the database and media manager for the Prevention Researcher, social media can be defined as, “an aspect of the internet which allows individuals and groups to create and publish online content, share the content, and interact about it.” These days, people are very involved with the internet and social media. Some think this is a benefit while others think this is a detriment for many reasons. Social media allows people to stay connected and explore new things, but there are many negative aspects that can affect self esteem, cause

It has become extremely common for an individual to sign into their Facebook account, and see a picture that they feel exposed a little too much. Check into their Instagram account, and regret letting everyone know what their location was. Feel uncomfortable, or bullied by a tweet that a person posted to their Twitter. Per Farheen’s article on negative effects of social media “participating in social media sites such as these can make you feel more connected” (Sagheer 1). It is not okay for individuals to feel victimized due to the negative effects of social media. Social media tends to distract, humiliate, and destroy one-self through entertainment. If people would donate more time to things more supplemental to their growth, and limit their use of social media, then maybe people would stop walking over the harm that social media presents to our community. Monitoring the time invested into social media will help eliminate most of the detriment, privacy issues, and bullying flowing through today’s society.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are commonly used among the younger generations, but can the excessive use of these apps cause mayhem? According to a new study conducted by the Family Technology Education Non-Profit Group, teenagers are spending nearly 9 hours a day on social media. The excessive use of social media is a bad influence on adolescents because of the negative impacts it has. Social media can cause direct impacts to the mental health, safety, and lives of its users. Teenagers need to ensure that they are being cautious and responsible while using different social media networks.

In modern society, with the rapid development of science and technology, social media has become an integral part of 80% people’s lives (sally,2015). As a result, it is a common phenomenon that more and more people are relying on these social medias and the most affected population are teenagers. There is a large number of social media channels, and the most popular are WeChat, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr. Social media provides a more convenient way for young people to communicate with each other. On the other hand, social media will bring a lot of disadvantages for teenagers. For example, much of teenagers ‘time is thought to be spent on social media sites. Reportedly, many teenagers spend an average of 9 hours online every day (McGillivray, 2015). This essay will analyze the negative effects of social media on teenager’s health, education and relationships.

Social media today is growing at very fast rates. The number of people joining social platforms to see what others are doing are astronomical, but with this this rise in social media usage, users are becoming more isolated. Social media distracts individuals from face-to-face interactions with friends, and makes having connections with new people harder to do. So much time out of someone's day is spent in social media. It is also causing more self-consciousness among its users. Social media today is becoming a bigger thing, but with all this, users are becoming isolated and distracted from real life, it makes users not connect with each other in real life, and with so much time spent in social media, people become shier and socially awkward.

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.

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.

Social Media is beneficial in many aspects of our lives. Whether social media is used for linking up with old friends or sharing a memory with people, there are many ways being online can benefit one’s life. Though there are positive aspects, social media can be destructive to one’s life as well. An old friend of mine, Emmie, used social media in ways that negatively affected her. She was so unsatisfied with her existence in the real world, due to the fact she lied to everyone around her, she would use social media as people use drugs. Emmie would go to social media to distract herself from the problems within her life. She was trying to fill a void that only real-life connections could help. She would edit her face and photoshop her body to seem more appealing. Doing this induced people online to believe she was above average while the people around her daily life would think less of her. She tried so hard to reach the “perfect standard,” which resulted in a detrimental outcome. She committed suicide, and much of it had to do with her own disapproval. Not attending to the reality of her existence spawned an irreversible conclusion. Although social media offers positive aspects, it can be harmful because it generates jealousy and causes a decline in happiness.

In this day and age, it is not uncommon to walk down the street and see most people talking, texting, or looking at Facebook on a cell phone. Everywhere we look, social media is slowly…or maybe not so slowly…creeping in. Social media is pretty great when you think about it on the surface level. You can keep in touch with family members you don’t see often on Facebook, show your friends what you’re doing on vacation by posting pictures on Instagram, and even find your one true love on Tinder. While there are a lot of positive uses of social media, interpersonal communication is not one of them. It’s when you start to look deeper that you can quickly and easily see the negative side effects of social media.

Social media is often portrayed as a social handicap to the younger generations due to the lack of communication the face-to-face contact. Despite this belief, social media has created an alternative communication method which is rapidly depleting the physical contact in society. Teenagers are becoming more dependent on their ability to hide behind a computer screen and “socialize” rather than sharing physical contact with their peers. Although social media has created a social handicap in physical contact, it has also created the ability to communicate with people across the world and promote positivity on notable issues. Media has even become a pivotal role in political campaigns in recent years. Social media has become a crucial role in society’s interactions.

With the help of technology, we can spread information faster than any other media source. From natural disasters, a famous figure passing away, or other shocking news; it only takes seconds for a friend to post it on their social media page, along with their reaction. With that in mind, because we live in the information age, the abundance of data we are exposed to can easily cause weariness (Kelly). As not everything shared is of interest to some individuals due to the information can be truthful, untruthful, or an opinion of the writer. Truthful information oftentimes becomes difficult to ascertain. While social media has allowed thousands to have a voice and spreads information that the user feels is important, a side effect is the spreading of false information distinguished as the truth. According to a website called Statista, eighty-one percent of U.S. Americans have had a social media profile, which is a five percent growth to previous years (Peng). While those numbers can be helpful while spreading news of a lost child on social media, negative results can take place as well. I have experienced firsthand how social media can spread news like wildfire, but in the process, the information gets twisted and changed becoming no longer truthful. Despite the previous viewpoint on the positives of social media, there are noticeably more negatives that imperil individuals.

Social networking is a primary source for influencing negative behaviors, especially egotism and relationship troubles. Social media gives people an opportunity for users to share content with their friends and followers. However, some people who post photos or videos of themselves online for international viewing become more narcissistic, and will constantly refer to themselves as being of a more higher standard than others. According to one online source, the author states some online communities have the potential for altering with a user’s mentality, and can render the mind to act more egotistical and reduce their focus on other situations (Derbyshire, 2011). The claim presented by Derbyshire demonstrates that a few social networking sites can do just about as much damage to a person’s behavior than being isolated from it. The amount of content posted online by an egotistical user raises the bar for them to only care about themselves rather than the wellbeing of others. A user’s attention span (as mentioned in the data) decreases drastically due to their constant attachment to a mobile device daily as again, the attention is only focused on them. It is mainly how this young brain develops; it becomes inconsistent the more time spent on these mobile platforms for potential virtual stardom. Besides the narcissism, social media can also be the result of modern-day relationship issues. In a 2017 study done by Deseret News and Brigham Young University, the research shows

Friend groups, maybe even family falling apart one by one, social natural disasters? In life, people change for the good or bad. This is just another additional argument that can confirm technology and social media are for the unfavorable. Some even conclude this is the reason why we have a lower percentage of positive user of social media. New York Times journalist, Hilary Stout, author of Antisocial Networking touches base in her article by writing,“Kids today are less interested in face-to-face communication.” In a nutshell, social media and its negative effects are taking place making these Generation Z, boomlets, having no sense of reality in the real world. Despite the fact that social media helps some tweens socialize with

Typewriters to computers, telephones to smartphones, written letters to communicating through social media such as snapchat and instagram, demonstrates how times have changed with communication. The earlier generations growing up had to use their imaginations and creative minds in order to be entertained. Playing outside with friends, building forts, and playing school were some of the many favorite activities of children. Today, you see smartphones in the hands of young children, changing children's ideas of fun. Now it is a struggle to find someone that is not a registered user of some type of social media website, such as snapchat, twitter, facebook, or instagram. It is everywhere and extremely hard to get away

Our lives seem to be more and more consumed by technology as great advances in this area have continue to be made, especially when it comes to social media. Many researchers have begun to notice that depending on how much time individuals spend on these social media sites, they can negatively affect their daily lifestyle in very significant ways.  For example, social networking has become a huge distraction for students and it can affect their grades depending on how often they check their various accounts while doing class work.  Researchers have also come to find out that social media can contribute to the development of psychological symptoms