The Negative Effects Of Social Media

Social media has become a part of our life, and no one can imagine living without it. Social media has grown a lot over the several years. Young individuals have always thought that social media is a marvelous piece of technology, but they never think about the negative effects of ‘like’ culture, which contributes to conformity and other negative consequences. The article, The Insidious Evils of ‘Like’ Culture, written by Neil Strauss, tells us about to what people can go to get more “likes.”

According to a recent study by IDC Research, 80% of smartphone users check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up each morning.

In the article, Liliana Escobar-Chaves and Craig Anderson focus on how youth are spending more time on social media and how that time spent of social media is causing them to bring negative effects to society. The authors go on to explain how the trends in increased social media use is increasing the health risks of obesity, smoking, drinking, unsafe sex and violence. The authors provide an in-depth look into each health risk and provide multiple facts and research studies to help support their claims. These research studies provide a clear and excellent understanding into how the increase in the use of social media can have a negative effect on the health risks they mentioned in the article.

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.

With the emergence of Facebook, the way people communicate with each other changed forever. A social network allowing users to share the events of their lives through posting photos and status updates, to monitor the lives of their friends, and to communicate directly via a built-in messenger has revolutionized Internet communication, causing millions of people all over the world to share all kinds of information about themselves. There were, of course, other social networks before Facebook, but none of them garnered such a significant user base, remained as persistent, and continued to act as an effective form of communication as much as Facebook did. Along with Facebook, currently there are many other social networks, each with their own features and purposes; what unites them all, though, is the idea of sharing. Seemingly, this should positively impact the communication skills of users, since it allows communication even for people far away from each other, or who are unable to communicate live. However, there have been numerous research studies proving the opposite: social media platforms not only impair a user’s ability to share thoughts, but distort communication processes, creating more problems than they solve.

With the growth of Social Media, the way society communicates with each other changed forever. A social network allowing users to share the events of their lives through posting photos and status updates, to monitor the lives of their friends, and to communicate directly via a built-in messenger has revolutionized Internet communication, causing millions of people all over the world to share all kinds of information about themselves. There were, of course, other social networks before Facebook, but none of them garnered such a significant user base, remained as persistent, and continued to act as an effective form of communication as much as Facebook did. Along with Facebook, currently there are many other social networks, each with their own features and purposes; what unites them all, though, is the idea of sharing. Seemingly, this should positively impact the communication skills of users, since it allows communication even for people far away from each other, or who are unable to communicate live. However, there have been numerous research studies proving the opposite: social media platforms not only impair a user’s ability to share thoughts, but distort communication processes, creating more problems than they solve.

In the previous few decades, technology and the creation of social media sites have taken a great part in the lives of people. The internet particularly began to develop in the early 2000’s into a prominent use within professional companies and personal use. Myspace and Facebook began the launch of early social media sites. Most children growing up in the early 2000’s did not have a prominent engagement in social media. However, times have changed. Technology has snuck its way into nearly every part of people’s lives, including those growing up. But, the internet and social media do not always have beneficial effects. Social media creates lasting problems for teenagers.

Erik Qualman once said, “We don’t have the choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it.” According to Merriam Webster, social medias are forms of electronic communication through which people create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, etc. Certainly, most high schools students own more than one account on the Internet. Because younger generations have little understanding of social medias, they are more likely to be controlled by the Internet. For instance, bad manners out there might take advantage of them. Nowadays, adolescents are more likely to be on their phones rather than enjoy the sun out there. For this reason, teens are less experienced the state of being teenagers. Social media has a huge impact on our future generations because it causes addiction, distraction, and depression.

How many hours a day do you think you spend using social media? Some people spend hours on hours of time on social media. When people spend so many hours on their phones and computers looking at social media it tends to make them lazy and anti-social. People end up getting addicted to social media and it affects their work performance, the employees would be on their phones looking at Facebook and other social media platforms instead of doing their work. Social media is also the reason for social standards, and people, mainly teenagers, think poorly of themselves and how they look to others. There are many negative effects of social media, it makes people hate the way they look, making teens lazy, and it also can hurt people’s chances of getting a job or keeping it.

Peter Drucker is best known for being the Father of Modern Management, as well as being the author of several books and articles about innovation, entrepreneurship and strategies for dealing with the world. Drucker once said, “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said” (Drucker). Social Media has an had enormous effect on the world today. Everyday people are posting cruel comments and inappropriate posts about others without thinking about the effect it can have on that person. Although these sites provide us with easier ways of connecting with the world, they also have a negative impact on how people can view themselves. Social media sites such as, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram cause negativity all over the world today.

Before the era of social media, vacations got their meaning from the quality of the memories that were brought home; however, with technology and social media becoming increasingly more prevalent in today’s society, this is not the case anymore. With 76% of travelers posting their vacation pictures online through some social media platform, the “success” of a trip is now often defined by the number of “likes” that our posted photos receive (Frenaye). In this new culture of daily-life sharing, society has become addicted to the number of “likes” received; Consequently, there are unmistakable harmful psychological effects that develop in users of social media. Many travel photography accounts on social media, such as @MuradOsmann, create idealized lifestyles that negatively influence others’ self-perception and personal expectations due to frequent comparison to these professionally-edited images that display high economic status and perfect relationships.

Social media plays a huge role in today’s society. As technology continues to advance social media does too. While social networking sites become more popular the age of users on the site becomes younger. Social media has been around for what seems like forever, but it has only been around for less than two decades, “SixDegree.com, which existed from 1997-2001, is considered the first social networking site because it allowed users to create personal spaces and connect with friends online” (ProCon.org). Since the first social media site was created, there has been multiple new ones created like, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and many other commonly used sites. “As of Sep. 2014, 51% of US adults use YouTube, 28% use Pinterest, 28% use LinkedIn, 26% use Instagram, and 23% use Twitter” (ProCon.org). When analyzing the amount of time people spend on social media there are shocking results, “‘According to a [December] 2012 Nielsen…Americans spent 74 billion minutes on social media via a home computer, 40.8 billion minutes via apps, and 5.7 billion minutes via mobile web browser for a total of 121.1 billion minutes on social networking sites’” (ProCon.org). The large amounts of time people spend on social media affects society and people around by taking away face to face communication skills, making relationships weaker, lowering mental health, and

Social media plays a huge role in today’s society. As technology continues to advance social media does too. While social networking sites become more popular the age of users on the site becomes younger. Social media has been around for what seems like forever, but it has only been around for less than two decades, “SixDegree.com, which existed from 1997-2001, is considered the first social networking site because it allowed users to create personal spaces and connect with friends online” (ProCon.org). Since the first social media site was created, there has been multiple new ones created like, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and many other commonly used sites. “As of Sep. 2014, 51% of US adults use YouTube, 28% use Pinterest, 28% use LinkedIn, 26% use Instagram, and 23% use Twitter” (ProCon.org). When analyzing the amount of time people spend on social media there are shocking results, “‘According to a [December] 2012 Nielsen…Americans spent 74 billion minutes on social media via a home computer, 40.8 billion minutes via apps, and 5.7 billion minutes via mobile web browser for a total of 121.1 billion minutes on social networking sites’” (ProCon.org). The large amounts of time people spend on social media affects society and people around by taking away face to face communication skills, making relationships weaker, lowering mental health, and increasing

Imagine the world without any form of social media: No Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, or Twitter. We would have to stop endlessly scrolling through our feeds. We would not be able to conquer the constant overwhelming urge inside of us that makes social media a popular dependency. We would have to look up from our phones and see the world around us. Our society today solely revolves around the use of social media. Even though social media can be an exciting form of entertainment for many, the amount of hours spent on social networking is clearly unhealthy. Kelly Wallace, a television journalist who reports for CNN, states that “on any given day, teens in the United States spend about nine hours using media for their enjoyment”. On average, teenagers spend sixty-three hours a week on social media and about two hundred and fifty two hours on social media in a typical month. Despite the negative effects of social media, such as cyberbullying, depression, and unrealistic body standards, teenagers keep returning to their favorite apps for entertainment purposes. Disturbing websites and apps can be found on the internet and recent suicides have been linked to the use of social media that have taken place all around the world. In one case, The Blue Whale Challenge has caused over 130 deaths in Russia. The challenge gives unsuspecting people tasks to complete such as cutting your body and watching scary videos. At the end of the challenge, the last task is to commit suicide or else someone would supposedly go and kill the player’s family. Police in the United Kingdom are currently warning parents and children about the dangerous social media phenomenon. Social media can be a great source of communication but is a cruel and menacing commodity when used incorrectly. The increasingly high demand for social media is driving our world into a downward spiral and is creating a cynical environment. The unhealthy addiction to social media is a serious issue that needs to come to an end.

As technology increases in today’s world, so does the use of social media. Social media, as defined by Merriam-Webster is, “forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content.” That definition is what will be implied from now forward. Social media and its growing popularity, especially among the younger generations, has lead to difficulties with socialization skills. Although social media may come with other benefits, this side effect can be more problematic in the long run.