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 become a huge factor now in everyone’s life. Social media has made an impact in society in both negative and positive ways. A lot of teen and even adults have developed depression because of social media. Social media has set the standards very high for everyone to fit in because people are judged. Not even that but people have started to live in such a bubble because they are so envious of someone else’s life or want their life to be like someone else’s. It makes people so concerned of what they look like, how they speak, even express themselves feel bad if they do not meet the standards of how people accept on another. There has been research done to support this claim. It can be said that people that use social media encounter a decontrol of emotions and it increases the chances of getting depression. The people that are constantly on social media are more likely to have more serious causes of depression. If people stop using social media it will lower depression.

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.

And whilst social media can be great, it is silently becoming a damaging tool that is impacting our mental health and ability to function as independent young people. And I’ll tell you why in just a sec.

Parents all over America worry about what their children are doing on social media every day they are on it. No one knows what is truth or what is false. Someone could be using a different identity to try to scam people on social media. In this generation, everyone is all about their snap chat streaks, how many likes they get on twitter, how many people have seen their stories on snap chat, and how many re tweets they can get on twitter. I believe that social media is harmful to the psychological well- being of young people in America.

Social Media is any website that allows social interaction between people, from everywhere in the world. Social Media is growing extremely fast throughout the entire world. Adults and teenagers are joining social media sites everyday such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. When Facebook first came about it was used for family and friends to stay connected while in different parts of the world. It is also a way for entrepreneurs and companies to market and promote their businesses. The introduction of social media has changed the world both negatively and positively.

“People are spending 1 out of every 7 minutes on Facebook when online. Facebook users typically are spending 10.5 billion minutes (almost 20,000 years) on the social network. And, that’s excluding mobile devices.” This clearly demonstrates the problem with our society, the ease at which we fall blindly into the influence of our surroundings, in specific social media. According to Merriam-Webster, social media is “forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and micro blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos)”. Social Media platforms have become such a powerful and dominating advancement to human culture, that as a society we have become oblivious to its ramifications. Social media has impacted us negatively through the obstruction of our social capabilities, and is destructive to an individual’s mental health/behavior. This detriment can be therefore prevented if we become aware of these consequences, and continue to progress with a depth in comprehension, allowing for the control of ones growth.

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

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.

A question the online world is wondering still looms over society like a stormcloud. There is an unsuspected lightning bolt coming down on us that is the consequences of our Internet. What teens and kids are not thinking is that the Internet seems to be hurting us from the inside out, hurting our health, our schooling, and our connections with friends and family. Who are the role models of the Internet, if there are any?

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.

There are many negative effects of social media that are affecting our society psychologically such as anxiety disorders. Dana Duong is the producer of the website Anxiety.org as well as the data analyst. Duong argues that social media is one of the causes of SAD(Social Anxiety Disorder) and OCD(Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). Duong claims, “Facebook, for example, is a prime source for SAD because for many users it generates a fear of missing out that leads to a feeling of being disconnected from social experiences” (Duong, 2016). Facebook and other social media websites are the cause of the decline of face-to-face interaction. As Duong stated, it generates the feeling of being disconnected from social experiences meaning that teens or older are missing out on social experiences because of how social media are triggering social anxiety disorders. For example, someone gets off work early and went straight home to relax, but as soon as he opens facebook, he finds out that his friends are all at the bar having fun. Thus, his experience of feeling left out could be the trigger of his SAD. So considering this, there are many adults, scientists, and physicians who strongly believe that social media is controlling our society. SAD and OCD are most likely to be triggered onto teens and adults because of the hours spent online. It could be the hours spent messaging others, talking to friends or browsing around. This argument is strong because it can be considered pathos where readers may feel

In this technological age, social media has become a vital part of communication between teenagers. Developing friendships is important for a child’s growth, but researchers are questioning if social medial is impeding communication skills are taking away the ability to communicate in real life. Teens are missing opportunities to witness how words and actions affect others to expose them to feelings such as empathy, as texting and online chatting keeps others at a safe distance. Social media can give us a false sense of belonging and connecting that is not build on real-life social exchanges. This makes it increasingly easy to lose oneself to cyberspace connections and replace these online interactions with the good old face to face

Social media is a part of society as water is to life. Without the use of social media there would be a world of close friendships and face to face communication. “It’s estimated that by 2018, 2.44 billion people will be using social networks, up from 970,000 in 2010” (Guzman). Imagine not having social media to communicate with friends and family. Think about having to have a face to face conversation instead. “We use it for every part of our lives- in our personal relationships, for entertainment, at work and in our studies… every minute we collectively send more than 30 million messages on Facebook and almost 350,000 tweets” (Guzman). Social media is becoming an increasing problem throughout society, taking away face to face communication, effecting relationships, and causing a negative effect on mental health.

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