The Negative Effects Of Social Media

“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.

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.

Firstly, we need to understand what social media is. From a broader and vague perspective, social media can be referred as the wide variety of mobile and Internet-based services that allow users to contribute to online exchanges, join online communities, or contribute user-created content. Although social has helped us learn more and educate ourselves on many things, it has a lot of mental effects on our bodies. It has detrimental effects on our wellbeing (Bányai et al. 52). Social media is a platform that has an increasingly significant impact not only on our mental health but also multiple facets of modern life beyond online communication. This platform is misleading the teens and the young adults because they are the most who spent a lot of time socializing online and doing all manner of things thus exposing themselves to the risk of developing the mental problems. They get all negative effects that are associated with social media because they spent most of their time online. Although social media has more good than harm, we also need not spend most of our time online as this will bring us many mental problems that can affect our entire life. Social media has vast negative effects on oneself, specifically on depression, addiction, self-esteem, and confidence, therefore we need to regulate the usage of it to avoid these problems in the future.

Modern society is in grave danger because of the media. Different forms of media have emerged over time, including newspaper, books, radio, television, and now the internet. Numerous studies have proven a link between poor self-image and the media, and this trend has worsened with time. It seems the more access individuals have to the rest of the world, the more self-obsessed they become, and the results can be deadly. Many psychologists have discovered a connection between media (social media primarily) and one’s self-image. Unfortunately, this connection is often a negative one, as social media has been claimed to be “more addictive than alcohol or tobacco” (Fox, para 1). There are several factors that contribute to this trend of social media negatively impacting body image, many of which are scientific and should potentially be treated as a disease like other addictions are. Society’s “ideal image” of an individual has evolved as social media has become increasingly popular, which is damaging individuals’ self-images and causing body dysmorphia in some cases. Social media and exposure to other factors such as reality television should be limited in order to prevent unrealistic body images.

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 good and clear 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.

Social media is the most widely used medium, with its users being able to easily participate, and creating including blogs, social media network, and virtual worlds. Definitions of social media according toexperets. According to MCGraw Hill Dictionary, social media is a tool used by people to interact with each other by creating, sharing, and exchanging information and ideas in a network and virtual community. According to Varinder Taprial and Priya Kanwar (2012) social media is a medium used by individuals to becomes social media, or become social online by sharing content, news, photos and other with others. According to B.K. Lewis (2010) social media is a label for digital technology that allows people to connect, interact, produce, and share the message content. According to M. Terry (2009) social media is simply defined as shared content users who use internet-based broadcasting technologies differently than traditional print and broadcast media. According to M.L. Kent (2013) social media is any form of interactive communication medium that allows for two way interactin and feedback. According to Chris Brogan (2010) social media is is a new set of communication and calloration tools that allow for different types of interactions that were previously unavailable to the layman. I think social media is means used to interact, exchange information, share photos and news promote products.

Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram are just a few examples of social media that our society revolves around. From hate posts to videos of dogs eating ice cream you can find pretty much anything you want with a touch of a button. Everyone has their different opinions and it is much easier to share those through that little thing you cling onto as if it somehow protects you. We have adapted to being able to type whatever we want and post it for everyone to see instead of confronting the problem face to face. Social media provides a mostly negative effect on not only our generations but past and future generations as well. There could be the best thing for America today and you will find someone who disagrees and changes that into a bad thing that should have never been introduced, self esteem is determined by how many likes you got on your last post and lastly, these poor kids can’t have their own thought process they have to go along with the “status quote.”

Isolation is increasing in my life since social media are taking such a huge roll in it. I have discovered that social media is helping me build walls in my own life. I notice the continuous blank stare at my phone as I roam the halls of Florida International University. It’s as if my social anxiety is a broken leg and my cellphone is my crutch. My cell phone brings me so much comfort, although I am comforted, I feel so disconnected with the world. Learning is much easier through social media websites. I am anti-social during school and with myself. All of this brings me to the conclusion that social media causes negative impacts in my daily life. Some of which include avoiding peers around the halls and using the internet to learn. I am not an electronic loving person, but why am I allowing social media to lock me up with handcuffs that I don’t have the keys for?

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.

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.

Once upon a time, folks were able to create small talk with one another with ease, even if they were complete strangers to each other. Eye contact and showing that you were engaged in what someone was speaking to you about was not an issue. Fast forward to when electronics such as Personal Computers, Smartphones, and Tablets started to distract society by becoming prominent products of daily usage and with the birth of social media (which is accessible through these devices), they are now taking over for the worst. Those once normal abilities to mingle and get to know one another with comfort is now on the backburner, and it has been there for a while now. In light of technology and social media’s effect on people’s social skills, the argument can be made that with its growing prevalence and usage, it indeed having a negative effect on us. The negative effect being our basic social skills rotting away and the issues of social media literacy and the distinct difference between this generation and our parent’s generation also surfaces.

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.

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.

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.

Being a student, I think 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 for translator 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 communicate with each other. However, it could bring the negative and the positive effects. According to my personal experience, I think the negative effects on social media is much more than the positive effects.