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The Effects of Social Media
Have you ever thought of being completely free from social media? How would your life be without smart phones, better or worse, easier or much harder? I guess, you haven’t even imagined it. So, close your eyes for a minute and do it right now. If your answer is ‘better or easier’, you’re exactly aware of the harm that social media gives you day by day. But if you insist on saying that social media is just your cup of tea, then you’d better keep on reading, to realize both the pros and cons of social media or raise your awareness about it.
Since teenagers are vulnerable and among the heaviest social network users, the effect of social media on this specific group is particularly important. While the fact that social networking plays a considerable role in expanding social connections and acquiring technical skills is undeniable, its risks can not be ignored. There are many positive aspects, but there are equally as many dangers that come with the use of social networking sites. So, what may the longterm effects of social media use be?
Positive effects of social media
Education: Teachers are able to collaborate and communicate with students and one another easily. They can benefit from various course materials such as photocopiable worksheets to be handed out to students. Students have the opportunity to access to resources online to help them learn, discuss educational topics and talk about school assignments via social media.
Awareness/Being informed: People usually learn about breaking news on social media as information spreads faster online than any other media. Social networking allows people to access previously unavailable resources for academic research and empower people to change themselves and their communities.
Social relationships: Social media make it possible to communicate with friends and strengthen those relationships. People make new friends online, stay in touch with friends they don’t see regularly by forming ‘groups’ or ‘pages’ and find friends they haven’t heard about for a long time as well.
Job opportunities: Social networking is great for professionals for marketing, connecting and finding business opportunities because employers find employees and the unemployed find jobs, easily. Social media sites are able to create many different jobs and new avenues of income.
Emotional support: Young people, who may be suffering from mental health issues, have an opportunity to read, watch, listen and understand the health experiences of others. Conversations on social media can help those people to overcome difficult health issues when they may not have access to that support face-to-face.
Negative effects of social media
Anxiety & Depression: Researchers suggest that young people who are engaged with social media for more than 2 hours per day are more likely to state poor mental health, including psychological distress and symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Sleep: Countless studies have shown that young people suffer from poor sleep quality because of increased social media use (phones, laptops and tablets) especially at nights, before bed.
Lack of privacy: People, mostly the young, feel free to share their personal information when online without being aware that their information may be used by third parties. They believe that posting personal information using photos is safe and harmless.
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO): Checking social media and e-mails constantly, feeling impatient and nervous in case of disconnection, trying to stay in the know are all related to FOMO. But, of course, we are missing out everything as time is finite. What we should do is to pay attention to the people around us, instead of posts.
School/Work: Engaging in social media can harm both students at school and employees at work. It enables cheating on school assignments, lowers the grades of students who go online while studying and decreases the productivity of employees who check social media at work thus, it is a great waste of time.
Misinformation: False rumors and unreliable information cause infollution (information pollution) so it becomes harder to rely on what we read on social media. Amateur medical advice and self-diagnosis of health problems are also some of the common problems in the cyber world and they can be dangerous and life-threatening.
While social media can be harmful, there are benefits that can come from it. So, what is your final decision?
