Pros And Negatives Of Social Media

Social networking sites (referred to more broadly as social media) are a collection of websites and applications that enable users to swap ideas, post updates and comments, and participate in activities and events while sharing their interests with other users. From general chit-chat to propagating breaking news, scheduling a date to following election results, gentle humor to serious research, social networking sites are used for a variety of reasons by various user communities. Nowadays, nearly every person who has access to a computer and Internet indulges in some kind of social networking on a daily basis. The introduction of social media has changed the entire dynamics of our lifestyles: the ways we live, work, and maintain our friendships. Despite its numerous advantages, social media does yield some negative effects. However, the benefits of social media greatly outweigh its negative effects.

One danger that is often overlooked by social networking users is social comparison. The phrase “social comparison” refers to the idea that people determine their own self-worth through evaluating and comparing themselves to others. This is especially prevalent on social networking sites. Users of social networking sites often strive to make their lives seem perfect. In order to achieve this, users will only post their “highlights” or positive points in their lives. One author states, "When you're on a site like Facebook, you get lots of posts about what people are doing. That sets up social comparison — you maybe feel your life is not as full and rich as those people you see on Facebook,” ("Social Media: Does social media have a positive impact on the world?"). However, it is not the fact that the users may unintentionally be posting only their highlights that could be potentially dangerous. Rather, it is the fact that another user may compare their own life to another user’s. For example, a user could be scrolling through a site and see another user’s highlights and begin comparing their own life to the other user’s. As a result, a user could start to develop a lower self-esteem. Their sense of self-worth may also be damaged in the process. This obsession of one’s self-image can have severe consequences such as feelings of depression or loneliness ("Social Media: Does social media have a positive impact on the world?").

Picture this, you just got the greatest haircut of your life. Feeling good, you take a selfie and post it on Instagram with the caption, “Feelin’ good.” A few hours later, you get a notification that someone commented on your picture. That comment reads, “You’re feeling good about THAT haircut? LOL!” You were just a victim of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is one of the many negative effects of social networking and social media on teens, and could create a situation that results in death (Mulvihill). Some people, however, claim that social media can improve teens’ knowledge of current social affairs, but others assert that the cons outweigh the pros. Although social media can inform teens

In today’s century social media is the main way to communicate with people with people all over the world. It has become very popular... even more popular than a text or video message. Social media is a computer technology that facilitates the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via communities and networks. The variety of social media services that are currently available can help benefit businesses, introduce an event, or even help you find a friend, family member, or long lost soulmate. Some social sites even help you find love. However, there are many positive things that can come out social media but there are many negatives too.

Social media is a controversy topic in today’s society. Some people think that social media destroys human interaction and real life human relationships. While others think that social media is a bless to humanity. Social media makes human interaction much more convenient and much faster than real life human interaction, it makes globalization a reality, it gives a chance for introverted people to express themselves, and it also benefit develop international relationships whether its business or social.

James Karl Buck, a graduate students of United States happened to be travelling in Egypt during their anti governmental protest. He was arrested and detained in Egypt. Prior to his sentence,he sent out a tweet from the twitter to those who he knew and let them know about his problem. This began a quick process and a quick release. This is one of the best example for the utilization of social networking site.

In discussion of social media being a controversial issue, it is discussed whether it brings positive or negative outcomes on our society. Some argue that it helps stay connected with friends, while others say that social media affects our ability to interact and communicate with people face to face. Additionally, it is argued that social media helps spread news all over the world instantly, cases like missing people or updates on impacting news. However, it increases cyberbullying with the help of common and successful social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.

Social media is a huge trend occurring throughout all ages of the population in 2017. In this article, there are a few examples of breaches in HIPAA. There is a photo of a dentist, dental hygienist and a young girl posing and giving praise for proper teeth cleaning. The photo was posted on Facebook. This causes an issue because even though there is nothing wrong with praise, they are giving away patient identity without consent for the whole world to see. Patient identity such as name, birthdate and looks should kept private and in this case, it was not. Another problem also encountered in health care is the concept of the professionals sending patients friend requests via Facebook. Health care professionals should not have any contact with their patients outside of the workplace. The right thing to do is keep personal accounts confidential. Taking pictures while in an office of any health care professional should not happen. There could be things within the office that have the identification of other patients that should be confidential. The health care professionals should also refrain from taking pictures because with Apple products now-a-days, every picture/video taken is sent to the iCloud. Things on the iCloud are not always safe, even if they aren’t posted to any social media. If you are a professional and take a photo but your iCloud is hacked, you can be fined with breaching patient confidentiality without any control (Emmott, 2017).

Nick McGillivray (2015) discussed the pros and cons of social media. The positive aspects of engaging in social media are student users use social networking to discuss educational topics and are using social networking sites to talk about school assignments. Social media allows people to communicate with friends and this increased online communication strengthens those relationships. While grades did improve for light users, the grades of students who are heavy users of social media tend to suffer. Users are vulnerable to crime.

Online is where teens can post their problems and try to get advice. Once somebody puts information on a networking site, there is no erasing it, it is permanently on there and can be shared with the whole electronic world. Greenfield and Yan in their studies claim that social networking sites have done a great deal in persuading teens to partake in adult and illegal activities and use sites as a source where teens can spill their lives out. Teens don't realize what kind of consequences a simple post of alcohol or drug related can have on them in the future. Just because you are hiding behind a wall of social media doesn't mean that you still can't get in trouble with the law. Teens are being overwhelmed with the general public drowning them in material they are not quite mature enough to deal with yet. Networking sites are filled with risky behavior and, “ 81% referenced alcohol, and 27% discussed illegal drugs” (Greenfield). These statistics are very high considering the amount of information is shared on a certain social media site every day. Developers are trying to come up with a filter or function that will be imvemted into every social media website where they can advertise alcohol or drug related content to minors and if they are not twenty one years of age, then the advertisement will be blocked. Anything that is related to being older will soon be blocked. This is for the safety of the kids. Alcohol related issues along with drugs can damage a teens self esteem

While some fear that if humanity does not disconnect from this always-on culture that Turkle spoke of, people will become alienated from one another. According to Turkle’s theory, when people become alienated from others the isolation brings to light that people have allowed their overworked and overscheduled lives to affect how they connect with other people. Hence, people no longer have time to sit down and make a phone call. Instead, they send out a quick text, thus allowing texting to become a central form of communication (Alone Together 3). Although people are not physically shutting themselves off from one another, Wendy Leung, a journalist for The Globe and Mail and author of “Does social media bring us closer – or make us loners?” conveys a valid point. “We often live in our own bubbles, simultaneously reaching out and closing ourselves off to others through the use of technology” (Leung).

Too many parents these days think that social media can be a weapon for kids to hide in. People just don’t know what social media can do for their kid between boosting self-confidence and helping them build real friendships. Just because they spend who knows how long looking at a screen during the day, it doesn’t mean they’re not socializing with friends they already know, and it doesn’t mean they are talking with random people, though that does happen, it’s not all that bad.

The word, “Media,” can be defined as, “the main means of mass communication.” Media has been around for hundreds of years, in one form or another. With the new technology available today, media has become more of a social platform than a way to spread information. This has resulted in the emergence of social media, the communication of people by sharing and consuming information, mostly about one’s self. Social media has also sparked a debate as to whether it benefits society, or harms it (Are Social Networking Sites Good for Our Society 1). But, there is no doubt, social media only negatively impacts the world.

Nowadays technology has played a big part in our world and has not only made the world easier, but also makes it hard at times as well. With so many advances in technology happening from the I-Mac Pro, to the iPhone 8, who knows what else the future will hold. But not only are there new technologies coming out, but also new sites. Sites that can be used from all over the world with people from everywhere using it. Many sites have gotten new updates to make them more popular such as Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and even Facebook. But would that be a good or bad thing? Many people can agree there are some good things about social media, but there can also be bad outcomes as well. Many people think having social media can be a bad thing,

Many people have begun to perceive social media as a negative aspect of their lives. They believe that they do not get enough face-to-face interaction and this causes their actual social life to deteriorate. However, this is a fallacy. Clive Thompson writes, “Fewer than 20% of kids send more than 200 texts a day; 31% send barely 20 or fewer (Thompson "Teenagers and social networking – it might actually be good for them").” It is a person’s choice to spend the majority of their time using social media. Social media has many more positives than negatives. A perfect example of this is global communications. People can speak with relatives, business partners, and friends from around the world. Many others are capable of using social media to their economic advantage as well. There are many companies founded through the use of the internet and use social media to self-promote these companies. Also, the internet and specifically, social media is now used as a valuable source of news and many people’s primary way of obtaining recent news. Therefore, although social media may cause less human interaction it does generally make us more social due to the fact that we can interact with others globally within minutes and access news in the same fashion.