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 recent years, media has really had an impact on how people see the world. A technology driven society is emerging because people are hooked to their phones and social media handles. And while there is nothing inherently wrong with social media as a whole, there are definite issues with the credibility of the things shared on social media. Largely as a result of social media engagement, there has been a rise in both fake news and the use of click bait. Titles such as “Pope Francis shocks world, endorses Trump for president” and “WikiLeaks confirms Hillary sold weapons to ISIS… Then drops another bombshell” are some of the most influential fictional stories from 2016 (Hannah Ritchie). These are just two headlines of news stories

The term social media “refers to networks that facilitate the interaction between individuals in virtual communities and networks” (American Economic History: A Dictionary and Chronology 12). The world wide web provides an infinite amount of possibilities for an individual to research, attain knowledge, and seek helpful advice, but what this popular phenomenon provides is not all positive. Social Media creates expectations, which “ come to have a collection of ideas about what is expected of “them” in terms of their behaviour in certain social situations and, in turn, of what they should expect concerning the behaviour of others and of their treatment in society generally” (Dictionary of media and Communication Studies). In today’s society the

People no longer stop by a friend’s house and get together around a table for lunch, when they can meet and chat with their friends online all throughout the day. Too often at parties and get-togethers, guests are attached to their smartphones texting, rather than truly interacting with the people around them. People nowadays are opting for online dating applications over face-to-face conversations and meetings. From all these transformations, it is evident that even though social media appear to have eased our lives, it has in fact made it more complex by ruining our ability to have relationships by robbing us of our precious time spent with our loved ones, interpersonal communication skills, and mental well-being.

Social media has a lengthy list of cons and downturns which in return I fear will degrade and decrease youth’s minds and lifestyles in general as social media has become such a significant way of functioning on a day to day basis. Few aspects of this would include privacy and safety, Internet sex crimes, cyber-bullying, personality and brain disorders in children, possibility of depression and anxiety and self identification. This makes it difficult for users to fully comprehend the consequences of a world where social media can take over. I will discuss why I believe social media will produce negative effects in youths and adolescence in the future.

However, does that mean that social media has a negative effect, restricting children from forming strong bonds and relationships? Yes and no. Going deeper into the discussion, I was reminded of a video that I had come across from a TV show called ‘Adam Ruins Everything,’ a series based around debunking common misconceptions. In this video in particular, the host interviews Anne Curzan, a Professor of English at the University of Michigan, discussing how language has changed in culture because of the addition of texting. She explains that it is not that the grammar of texters is improper, it is only that it is different and everchanging. Nowadays, it is common knowledge that if someone ends their text in a period, then it means that they are angry. Curzan also explains that while parents and adults might believe that their children do not put grammar into consideration, text messages actually are thought over quite intentionally because text has almost become its own language; a “text language.” (BATORACLE) With that, Turkle also describes the use of images and memes with funny texts in group messages, saying that people should never let it replace empathetic face-to-face conversation. However, one must look at texting, instant messaging, and memes and pictures as just a different language from spoken English, bringing up emotions and phrases that can not be defined in typical spoken conversation. In fact, the use of slang, now used especially on social media, has always

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.

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.

Used by the majority of Americans, social media has become a prominent source of entertainment, education, and communication. Social media is consistently at the fingertips of the average American, however, with this much exposure it has been shown to display negative effects, including of mental illness, addiction, low self-esteem and an outlet for bullying. Eventually, this can result in the downfall of social media

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.

Social media has led us to have fewer interactions with people in real life. Many people would rather use social media to communicate with their friends than they would in person, mostly because it makes the communication process easier. More people have become antisocial by spending too much time on social media, and studies show that people have less interest in interacting with other people in their age group and other age groups. Social media is not only decreasing the quality of interactions, but it is also drastically changed the amount of relationships that people have in person as well. Most people have a lack of interest in talking to one another while in person, and it’s been proven that 93% of communication is nonverbal. Cornell University did a study that found that people have a hard time distinguishing between meaningful relationships that they build in the real world and the numerous casual relationships built through social networking sites. Also, allowing social media to prevent you from experiencing genuine human experiences such as spending time with your family or spending time outdoors can be very unhealthy.

Being a student, I guess the penetration rate about the social media for me is almost 100 percent. At least me and my friends use it every day. We probably used it to translate the words or chat with others. Even more, we use it for fun. Everyone use social media. Undisputed, social media is another way for us to keep communicating with each other. However, it could bring the negative and the positive effects for us. According to my personal experience, I think the social media is harmful for the students and It can bring a lot of negative effect for me.

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.

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