Introduction
The internet has been deemed as a major tool for entertaining, communicating, shopping and researching in most households. Specifically, social media is perceived as the cornerstone of the modern communication. As Sahlin (181) reveals, social media enables government, companies, individuals as well as other organizations to view, create, and share career interests, ideas, information, as well as other forms of expressions. On the other side, Pride et al., (50) divulges that regardless of the fact that social media has had positive impacts; it also has its negative side. As social media continues to grow in not only size but also influence, there are some negative effects that it triggers especially the effect on socials skills. Thus, despite the benefits social media offers to both individuals and organizations, it negatively impacts our society through disconnecting them
...from the real world.
Although the use of social media is advantageous when it comes to finding opportunities for businesses, reducing barriers of communication and enhancing socialization, extreme usage of sites and networks have shown to induce some psychological effects (Subrahmanyam and S?mahel 123). For example, signs of increased aggression and depression and the general lack of empathy are a result of consequences of constant use of social media sites. The psychological effect of constant use of social media can trigger both short and long term problems. Specifically, a survey on the effects of social media on the mental health as well as well-being indicated that at least two-thirds of the users of social media have encountered relaxing and sleeping difficulties with 53 % arguing that using social media has highly changed their behavior with 51% reporting negative changes in behavior
(Whiteman 2). Further, the survey indicated that 55% of the participants were uncomfortable due to failure to access their social media accounts. This is largely brought about by the need multitasking which causes the human brain to quickly shift from one task to another hence resulting in fatigue (Sahlin 181). In addition to that, not only that social media usage makes users be unhappy.
Addiction is perceived as being one of the greatest negative impacts of social media. Individuals often have difficulties focusing on various things such as school and work due to the need of familiarizing with what the social media have to offer. In essence, individuals are prioritizing their social media accounts above their responsibilities. Currently, social media accounts for approximately 28% of the time spent on the internet. It has also been revealed that about 18% of the users of social media cannot manage to stay for long without checking Facebook and at least 28% of iPhone owners usually check their Twitter feed before starting the day (Bennett n.p). Spending long hours on various social media sites has the ability to divert the focus as well as the attention paid to a particular task to them. Thus, it is very difficult for users especially students to remain focused on their school work following the desire to connect with their peers.
Social media encourages users to hind behind computers thereby limiting their social interaction. In the modern world full of technological inventions, individuals prefer holding conversations through social networks as opposed to face to face method. Because of this, the interaction of people has become effortless as many people are isolating behind computer screens (Sahlin
181). Meeting, interviews, and other face-to-face communication have continued to decline and majority of people have ended up losing their charm and flavor of being together under one roof. Checking in or tweeting in the midst of the festivities takes away the individual’s fun while distracting him or her from socializing with friends. For instance, surveys indicates that social media not only takes the precious time teenagers could have spent with people in face-to-face communication but also subjects them to cyberbullying. Statistics further indicate that 34% of teenagers consent that social media usage consumes the time they could have spent for face-to-face communication while 44% agreed that the continuous use of these sites frequently distracts them from socializing with others (Feliciano n.p). Similarly, another survey indicates that at least half of teens and adolescents have been bullied online with half of them engaging in cyberbullying (Cyber Bullying Statistics n.p).
Counter Argument
Proponents of use of social media argue that social media is beneficial to the society as it allows individuals to stay in touch with other people from any part of the world. They further argue that social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram enables individuals to be exposed to different people, cultures, and geography through the reduction of barriers to communication, which in return expands their knowledge (Dwivedi 38). Besides, it more convenient to make friends with people through social media networks, because it is easier to communicate and create friendship since all the conversation is done behind the screen unlike face to face which at times intimidating. Social media sites have also extensively provided individuals with the opportunity to connect with others hence building
better relationships with people whom they could not have met personally. It is imperative to note that being in a position to connect with different people from different parts of the world can be problematic in that at time such a simple friendship can in return become an invasion of one’s privacy or even harassment. Furthermore, another negative impact of social media sites is that the user is prone to sharing too much personal information which might pose some threats to them. Despite the tight security setting, at times the user’s personal information may leak into these sites (Wang et al., 119).
From, the above analysis, it is evident that if used in the right manner, social media can be a very powerful tool for promoting messages. However, it is also clear that social media sites can trigger more negative effects as opposed to positive ones if not used correctly. The negative effects of social media range from psychological as evidenced in addiction to physical as evidenced in lack of social skills. For instance, conducting social activities such job interviews have become difficult since people are not exposed to face-to-face communications or the realities of engaging in physical interactions. The continuous exposure to social media leads to addiction, isolation, as well as reduced productivity. These effects can, in turn, be more disastrous and thus the reason as to why it is important to regulate the time spent on social media as well as the energy.
Work Сited
- Bennett, Shea. "TWITTER Social Media Addiction: Statistics & Trends". socialtimes. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Oct. 2016.
- "Cyber Bullying Statistics". Bullying Statistics. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Oct. 2016.
- Dwivedi, Yogesh K,
Matti Ma?ntyma?ki, M.N Ravishankar, Marijn Janssen, Marc Clement, Emma L. Slade, Nripendra P. Rana, Salah Al-Sharhan, and Antonis C. Simintiras. Social Media: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: 15th Ifip Wg 6.11 Conference on E-Business, E-Services, and E-Society, I3e 2016, Swansea, Uk, September 13-15, 2016, Proceedings. , 2016. Internet resource.
