Negative Impact of Social Media Essay Example

“destructive and harmful when used incorrectly.”

Though the first lady has been cyberbullied, and has received many comments saying that “she is an illegal immigrant who was only granted citizenship through her husband”, her husband, President Trump continues to cyberbully individuals. A well known example of adult torment that happened on Twitter is an incident that occurred June of 2018 between the President of the United States and a restaurant called the Red Hen. The Red Hen refused to serve Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House Press Secretary who works under Donald Trump.

When the President heard this news he proceeded to social media and wrote “The Red Hen Restaurant should focus more on cleaning its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I always had a rule, if a restaurant is dirty on the outside, it is dirty on the inside!” This tweet led to the owners of the restaurant being harassed for weeks. They received horrible messages including death threats and comments from people calling them communists.

The owner of the restaurant spoke out saying he received a message from somebody in California saying “ May we rot in hell and we lose all our businesses and it’s a horrible place.” The lady who wrote this is said to never have set foot in the restaurant. All of these hateful messages and loss of business came from one tweet, and the encouragement given to his followers. However, cyberbullying isn’t the only major problem on the internet. Along with cyberbullying there is peer pressure. Though peer pressure can play a role in

cyberbullying it also plays a huge role outside of that.

Peer pressure from social media makes us vulnerable to the wrongs of society. It can encourage us to make poor decisions, and influence us to participate in dangerous actions or challenges. Such recent challenges include the “Tide Pod Challenge” and “The Kiki Challenge”. The Tide Pod Challenge is a dangerous challenge that consists of ingesting a detergent pod. The pod contains dangerous chemicals that can lead to life threatening breathing problems, gastrointestinal problems, and neurological symptoms. Even with the public warnings people still continued to engage in such a challenge due to the pressure from their peers and social media encouragement.

The second challenge mentioned may seem like a harmless challenge but it has come with many consequences. The Kiki challenge involves jumping out of a moving car and dancing beside it. Videos of this challenge being performed have shown innocent citizens getting run over by cars, or hit. The driver of the vehicles have also been shown getting hit by their car. Police from all over the state and country had to address The Kiki Challenge ordering it to be stopped.

The Daily Mail reported numerous police forces saying someone will be “seriously injured or even killed.” Police from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and even India have publicly addressed this challenge. These challenges have become well known due to the hype of social media encouraging others to attempt them. This encouragement from peers can make us think irrationally resulting in appalling decisions and actions. This goes to show how social media can negatively influence behavior of all ages.

Along with behavior, social media affects our lives mentally, physically, and emotionally.

According to Dr. John Richey, a Virginia Tech associate professor in the psychology department, “Humans are uniquely cooperative and social creatures, and we likely need to interact with others in order for our brains to develop optimally.

Restricting interactions to a relatively artificial platform could potentially deprive a person of the richness of face-to-face social interaction, which includes many important nuances such as nonverbal cues displayed through the face and body.” What Dr. John Richey is saying is that lack of human interaction is not good for the brain. The brain creates neural connections when communicating through a process called neurogenesis which is also used to create some forms of neuroplasticity- the brain's ability to change.

These connections are important because the patterns play a role in response to social and environmental experiences. Neuroplasticity is also critical to all aspects of brain function. A study was also done out of the University of Pittsburgh, to determine feedback involving time spent on social media. It shows a higher percentage of depression and sleeping problems due to more social media use.

In another survey taken March of 2018, 41% of the 1,000 individuals surveyed stated that social media platforms make them feel anxious or depressed. Social media affects our physical health in many ways, one of them being sleep. Too much screen time can affect melatonin, a hormone that helps control our sleep and wake cycles. Our phones and computers give off a blue light that can boost alertness. This will slow the production of melatonin, and can make it more difficult fall asleep and stay asleep resulting in sleep deprivation.

Another result of too much screen time is Computer Vision

Syndrome or Digital Eye Strain. It is a condition that results from focusing on a computer or device for excess periods of time which strains the eye muscles. Computer Vision Syndrome is hard to recover from with lack of sleep and overuse of social media can cause both by keeping us on our devices. Another physical problem from overuse of social media is posture problems.

When we are looking at our phones we are usually slumped over. This can lead to problems in our lumbar spine, upper back, neck, and shoulders. The emotional effects of social media as previously mentioned can cause a person to view them self negatively as they compare themselves to others. This can make a person feel as if they are not good enough and can result in unhappiness.

Social media also affects our self- esteem and self- worth. It affects the way we judge people based on attraction, confidence, competence, and popularity. Social media can negatively affect confidence by making certain people feel “powerful” and the others feel “powerless.” This can result in insecurities which cause us to look at ourselves differently and feel bad about ourselves.

This can potentially lead to eating disorders, self harm, anxiety, depression, isolation, and more. 72 percent of children have admitted they've been cyber bullied because of their looks and 26 percent of the reported victims are chosen because of their race or religion. 22 percent of victims are targeted because of their sexuality. The National Autistic Society released statistics showing that 40 percent of children with autism and 60 percent with Asperger’s Syndrome have reported being targeted on social media.

The effects of this social media harassment

has a bad impact with 7 out of 10 children reporting social media has negatively impacted their social lives. 83 percent reported that it has hurt their self esteem and 30 percent have suicidal thoughts, which is a 5% rise from 2013. 10% reported trying to take their own lives as a result and 7% admitted to becoming the bullyer due to previous torment.

While there are many negatives to social media, there are still some positives. Social media may cause people to act differently than from how they would in person, but social media also gives us a chance to be noticed. Social media is said to boost self esteem by 40 percent of teens in the world.

Many people with social anxiety use social media to connect with others who encourage them, guide them, and inspire them. It really helps knowing that there is somebody out there in the same situation as them, and they can emotionally and psychologically build themselves up together. Social media is also slowly teaching us to become more accepting by featuring plus size models, models with flaws, and models including different races.

In 2017, ASOS a british fashion retailer, displayed models with acne scars and stretch marks on their instagram page along with many plus size models. ASOS currently has 7.6 million followers and counting. This will hopefully teach us that nobody is different and that we should all be treated equally and not differently because of our looks or who we choose to be.

Social media also gives us a chance to be noticed. Social media is said to boost self esteem by 40 percent of teens in the world. Many

people with social anxiety and depression use social media to connect with others who encourage them, guide them, and inspire them. It really helps knowing that there is somebody out there in the same situation as them, and they can emotionally and psychologically build themselves up together.

Social media has a huge impact on people’s lives more so hurting people than helping. Our behavior and self- worth can negatively be impacted or influenced by our peers and by strangers we've never even met before. Social media can also cause health issues, some that may even need treatment. With brought awareness to the growing issues of social media, maybe more can be done to stop it. Slight progress is being made to slow the negatives of social media but all around a lot still needs to be covered.