The Negative Impact of Social Media

Social Media Social media is a revolution in the word of communication. It is accessible in multiple languages and enables users to connect with friends and strangers across geographical, political or economic borders. Online social networks facilitate connections between people based on shared interests, values, friends, and professionals.

There are many social networks like Snapchat, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Facebook alone has over 500 million users that make it the most popular in the world. Millions of people from teenager to elderly people exchange and share their photos, videos, opinions, and thoughts in the social media environment. The communication network plays a great role in a person’s self-development and self-realization.

Most people prefer virtual word to real word. Therefore, social media is rapidly expanding and has become exceedingly popular among teenagers, adults, and elderly people. Although social media plays an important role in people life, excessive use of social media is hazardous because it causes mental health problems and makes people lazy. Social media has a widespread negative effect on mental health that is a global problem. The symptoms of anxiety like disappointment and isolation are shown among people who spend considerable time on social media.

Comparing and despairing are the main reason for social media anxiety. To illustrate, a couple always shares the vacation pictures on Facebook and Instagram and show how they are lucky, and on the other side of the world, a couple who does not have enough income always check jealously the fortunate couple page. Unfortunately, people compare their life with others who share their fancy life and seek a perfect life that cannot achieve. These compares make people disappointed and lead to social media anxiety.

Depression is another mental health problem that social media causes. Even though social media was designed for people to become closer and help to improve their relations, the connections between people decrease day by day, and people feel isolated as Kat Ascharya in her essay states, “Actually, technology has a magnifying effect on our social isolation, often making us feel more alone, or lonelier than before” (‘What Facebook Is Doing’). Depression disorder is the result of isolation. For instance in the past, people preferred to spend their free time with friends, go to restaurants with family, and go to the park with kids, but nowadays, people almost always are seen that checking Facebook, tweeting, or putting pictures on Instagram although they are close to their families, friends, children, and colleagues. In the virtual community, people are friend and family, but in real society, they behave like strangers. Indeed, despite being together, they are alone. In the long run, continuing this relationship causes depression because human requires a real relationship based on his instinct. As a result, there is a direct connection between using social media and mental health problems.

By excessive use of social media, mental health problems rapidly increase in a society that it is really dangerous because the next generation will be unhealthy. In the near future, societies will encounter a lazy generation because of social media. Currently, the information travels faster than the speed of light on social media. Accordingly, every minute several new Wikipedia articles are published, thousands of new tweets are posted, and many videos are uploaded on YouTube. This volume of information causes people to become lazy thinkers. For example, when people have a problem, they go on YouTube and find videos that solve their problem, and then they imitate the solution in the short run.

However, it will not tell the viewers how to think through the problem so that they can generalize the solution to a related problem. As a result of this, people do not think about their solution because they are dependent on social media. In another example, when a company wants its employees to present a new idea for a better sale, the first response of employees is that checking in social media to find an idea instead of thinking and present their own ideas. Social media captures the power of thinking and creativity that are required to improve.

Moreover, social media causes people to become lazy to do their daily activities. Apps like DoorDash and GrubHub are a neat service that allows people to have the food in their home from any restaurants in any time, so there is no reason to leave their home when they can have food from every part of the city. Amazon and eBay are a kind of social media that allow people to buy everything from their home without any movement. Even though these apps help people to do daily activities easier and quickly, lack of movement and laziness of the people lead several diseases like diabetes and obesity. As a result, social media train a lazy generation for the future. Admittedly, social media has many advantages.

The economy of a society can have significant progress by social media marketing as Tommy Landry states in his essay “In any case, social media has provided a means to have a voice on par with the big dogs for everyone, including the smallest startup or ‘Mom & Pop’ businesses” (“How Social Media”). Almost all business owners are using sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram to help their businesses to grow. Moreover, social media, especially Twitter, allows people to find their place in the world and gives them a chance to be heard. Actually, social media is the voice of people in the word.

People are free to state their beliefs and thoughts easily as Tommy Landry states, “It is far easier to do something remarkable and noticeable, and have it reach people across the planet, than it has been at any time in our history. We now have truly globalized voices” (“How Social Media”). On the other hand, social media can have a negative effect on people if it becomes an addiction. Every day, people start their day by checking social media and share their pictures and videos, and this checking continues while driving, eating, reading, working until night.

Excessive use of social media can be a main reason for many individual and social problems. Social media is a way that people can interact with their society behind the screen. According to social media supporters, connecting with their community via social media leads to the reduction of the real relationship and causes depression in the real community. Likewise, creativity and innovation of the people eliminate because social media does not allow people to think. In conclusion, despite many privileges that social media has in people’s lives, spending a lot of time on social media can have dangerous consequences like mental illness and intellectual and physical laziness. In contemporary society, people cannot imagine their life without social media because it makes their life more comfortable. If people cannot manage their time on social media, it can be destructive. According to Tommy Landry in his essay, “As with any communication medium, it comes with its ups and downs, pro and cons” (“How Social Media”).

Social media has a negative effect on mental health which is a crucial aspect of people life. Moreover, intellectual and physical laziness are another negative effect of social media. Therefore, people have to capable of arranging their time to prevent the negative effects of social media. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can be exciting, but it should be considered as entertainment. In early ages, parents should teach their children the value of unplugging from devices for free time to have a healthy and energetic generation.

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