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.”

Social media has been dominating people’s lives for years now. It is a way for people to stay connected with their family, friends, and even see what their favorite celebrities are doing. Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram are just a few of the social media sites that people love to use. These sites are used mostly by young adults. I believe social media can be a positive thing, but it can also have some negative effects. Young adults have become dependent on social media likes, retweets, followers and friends to determine validation and self-worth; these elements of social media are important to teenagers. Young adults need to take a step back from social media and focus more on reality, because they can become dependent on it, take it too seriously, and it can affect their mental health.

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.

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

As of 2015, more than two billion people (30 percent of the world’s population) are active on social media. Since then social media’s number of active users has grown and is continuing to grow day by day. As the number of active users increases so does the number of addictions that occur from it. Different groups of people say social media is a good thing because it lets everyone stay in touch but there have been many different arguments and studies that prove that social media can be bad depending on how much society uses it. Social media addictions produce negative effects in a person's life such as ruined relationships, low self-esteem, and physical exhaustion.

Social media is a large set of networks that allow individuals to communicate and engage with one another. Originally, these networks started as an extra way of communicating, but have now become a primary source (Johnson, Auria, et al. 1). Media can be used in positive ways such as spreading mass news, social marketing, connecting with family and friends, and as a search engine. Now, it is commonly used in negative ways. Festinger proposed that individuals use social media to evaluate and compare themselves with one another (Tatangelo & Ricciardelli 776). This leads to change in their “social and emotional development,” especially in teenagers (776). That statement can be proven by the fact that because so many individuals rely on social media, they end up worrying about what others think, so they feel insecure or ashamed. The effect of this can end up causing extreme changes to an individual’s life. This essay will argue that individuals darken social media by using it as a mask to influence one another, which increases the risk of mental health issues. This will be accomplished by analyzing how the people who engage in the media can change their own image, an individual’s self-image, value and identity, which can lead to stress, anxiety, depression, and even suicide.

With the development of technology, the social media has become an obbligato part of our life. In the 19th century, people still used the newspapers as their main source of information about their city; in the 20th century, with the popularity of electricity, people started to listen to radio and watch television to know the event of their country; in the 21st century, computers and mobile phones gradually become popular, people enjoy the convenience and comfort of internet. However, does the social media usually give people a positive impact? Just like Allcott and Gentzkow said, “American democracy has been repeatedly buffeted by changes in media technology.” (211) Social Media creates a negative effect on today’s world by influencing the presidential election, disrupting politics, and controlling the business. Some people use social media to spread rumors and satisfy an own personal desire, and the biggest and the nearest effect of our daily life is the 2016 presidential election of the United States.

With the rapid rise in technology, it brings about a new growth in the current culture. Technology, like cell phones and computers, brings on a newer form of communication that can be both private and public. Before the rise in technology most of our communication was face to face. Social platforms (like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and etc.) were not commonly used as they are today. These social platforms became more relevant because they allow many to interact with each other on an instant level. It is easy with these platforms to keep a brief conversation with short messages; for example, with Twitter each tweet is 140 characters. Often, the person behind the messages have “followers” (they, who in a sense, are subscribed to a person) that they can leave an impression onto. Some people use their platforms for positivity while some use their platform for criticism.

One of the most frequently asked questions in today's society is if social media is beneficial or harmful. Many argue that social media is a revolutionary invention while others argue that it has a negative impact on society. Social networking sites, such as Facebook, were created to stay in touch with friends exchange photos, and to be able to share news and multimedia content with them. Along with these positive aspects of Facebook, there are some negative consequences as well. Often times, Facebook and other social media sites aid in depression, jealousy, selfish attitudes, and addiction. With these major negativities, Facebook is no longer beneficial but, instead, is rather harmful to society.

My phone buzzes during class, is it worth getting it taken away then wait five minutes till class is over? This is the burden that technology holds on young adults. The phones ,tablets and computers becoming more advanced making them harder to shy away from making our lives more depend on all the technology in our lives.

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

The use of social media never really impacted me until the early 2010’s. It was never really my cup of tea to be on Instagram, Snapchat etc. As I gotten older and older I started to really get into things like Snapchat and Instagram. I didn’t make my first instagram until my 10th grade year of High School. Throughout the years I have met plenty of people that I have became close with through the media. Sometimes it is good sometimes it is bad and that is why I try to distance myself from it. That is pretty much my storyline of my social media life, now it's time to give it an outlook as a whole in the teenage world.

Social Media: good, bad, or ugly? Millennials would say that social media is beneficial, entertaining, and provides valuable information to young adolescents. Some older people love social media, though some would argue that social media has a negative effect on society and is the source of distorted information, miscommunication, and failure in relationships. What happened to one on one conversations with colleagues or activities that included running, going outside, or even just sightseeing? The relationships between people have been disrupted due to social media's negative effect on the idea of a healthy relationship; False expectations, mental health issues, and lack of communication prevent strong relationships to begin and grow.

Growing up in the age of internet and being millennials, social media is as natural to the people of today as breathing or drinking water. Social media is a “series of websites and applications that have been designed to allow people to share content and communicate with each other quickly and efficiently” (“What is Social Media, 2017). A few people have a more confined perspective of social media likening it to mean the same as interacting on sites like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and others. The power of social media is such that, the number of people using it worldwide is expected to reach 2.95 billion by 2020, which is a third of the world’s entire population (Facts, 2017). Social media has been described as being more addictive

At a glance, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have provided the modern day individual with a higher level of connectivity. These platforms have thus ensured a great facilitation of communication between friends, family and even new individuals across the globe. Moreover, the platforms have thereby enabled quick and efficient news and activities sharing amongst different people. In fact, social media has proven quite useful to the modern day individual making it a crucial component of the people’s everyday activities ranging from communication, businesses, and networking. All this components seem to be advantageous to the people, but as with most new technologies, social media brings forth a mixture of the good and bad outcomes to its individual users. Social media technology has thus proved to be more beneficial than it’s harmful, however, it has caused negative effects in that its results include nonexistent personal relations between individuals and isolation of such individuals leading to people being more alone.