Social media has
helped many businesses grow and promote itself
, and has helped people find a better way to connect and communicate with one another. On the other hand, it's also provided many people with problems involving mental health, emotional insecurities, and waste of time.
However, multiple studies have found a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts. Social media may promote negative experiences such as:
Inadequacy about your life or appearance
.
Social media can influence consumer's purchase decisions through reviews, marketing tactics and advertising. Essentially, social media
vastly impacts our ability to communicate, form relationships, access and spread information
, and to arrive at the best decision.
Does social media have the power to change the world? The
answer is yes
. But there are still many obstacles, like censorship and literacy. Three-fifths of the world's population is not connected.
Social media enables you to:
Communicate and stay up to date with family and friends around the world
. Find new friends and communities; network with other people who share similar interests or ambitions. Join or promote worthwhile causes; raise awareness on important issues.
Harvard Scientists conducted a study looking into 3 psychological health outcomes related to social media use. They found that social media
itself did not cause poor psychological outcomes
. For those who used it out of need, with more addictive relationships with social media, they had negative outcomes. …
How does the media affect our daily lives?
It greatly affects our lives because
media has the power to influence our thoughts
. … Media educates the people to know about their basic rights and how to use them. It is also a link between the government and people because all the policies and activities of government are conveyed through media.
Through social media networks,
they can create new friendships, express their views and opinions, and even create ‘new identities
‘. Social media also exposes students to a whole new way of learning. Research has shown that students who are frequent users of social media are more innovative and exhibit better memory.
Social media has changed the way we communicate. … When it comes to our union, social media is
a powerful tool to communicate to the outside world about struggles faced by members and people
in our communities. It's also a free and open forum to debate, exchange ideas and share opinions.
- You reach large audiences. …
- You have a direct connection with your audience. …
- You can create organic content. …
- You have access to paid advertising services. …
- You build your brand. …
- You drive traffic to your website. …
- You can evaluate your performance.
What are positive effects of media?
Some positive effects include:
Motor skills are improved by typing, clicking, playing games
, and other tech related finger skills. Hand eye coordination or even quick thinking can be helped. Access to mass news media can improve reading skills.
There's bad news for those self-proclaimed social media “addicts”: multiple studies from the last year show that too
much
time spent on your favorite platforms can make you depressed and less satisfied with life. It starts early, too; even young teens report negative effects from social media obsession.
| Pros Cons | Put yourself out there in a good way Posting inappropriate statuses/pictures | Connect with students in other educational systems Making people feel bad about themselves | Make new friends/communicate or connect with old friends/family Cyberbullying |
|---|
- cyberbullying (bullying using digital technology)
- invasion of privacy.
- identity theft.
- your child seeing offensive images and messages.
- the presence of strangers who may be there to ‘groom' other members.
Stalking, identity theft, personal attacks, and misuse of information
are some of the threats faced by the users of social media. Most of the time, the users themselves are to blame as they end up sharing content that should not be in the public eye.
Social media use has also been associated with
cyber bullying and cyber abuse
by anonymous users online, which leads to problems of self-esteem, privacy ,etc. Most studies have shown that, social media's violent games result in increase in violent tendencies and behaviours in children.
