Impact of Social Media in our Everyday Lives (Causes and effects)
Impact of Social Media in our lives
How often is it that we walk into a full room of people that are oblivious to the presence of a crowd around them? With their eyes glued to the screen of a smartphone, the scene is definitely different from about a decade ago when personal interactions were mostly face-to-face. Social media was the whirlwind that endured social boundaries, rather than an illusion. Social media has been ingrained into our society today to such an extent that it is virtually impossible for people to take you seriously, if you are not on any social media platform. Everyone is on social media — young, old, rich, poor etc. Everyone is always in a frenzy when it comes to socializing online. Even the corporate world has jumped into the bandwagon and companies are very active online and posting updates.
There are many social networks to choose from; some of the popular ones include Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. As the popularity of social media keeps on spreading all over the world, there have been mixed feelings about these networks and how they impact society. So, how does social media affect society? To answer this question, we have to look at both the positive and negative impacts of social media. Going with the former first, social media has reduced the world to a global village. Society can interact with people from other parts of the earth by just a click of the button. Through these interactions, people can share ideas, acquire information and also be exposed to many opportunities out there in the world. With social media, anyone can trace their former friends by simply typing their names or just indicating the school they attended. There’s so many different things social media can do for you.
Too much social media also leads to addiction. Society today is full of people sitting next to each other, not talking, but just staring at their phones. Society as a whole is spending more time with their social media friends than with their families, friends and loved ones. When they wake up, the first thing they check is their social media accounts. Before they go to sleep, the last thing they check are the updates. This is a big thing for people at work, with too many distractions, they cannot fully concentrate on their tasks. Take away social media for a day and the effects will start to kick in. Just like drug addicts, they will be withdrawn and stressed. It also leads to an uncontrollable obsession. People are obsessed with likes and comments and they will do anything to get them on a daily basis. Everything they do, they post them on forums to get some form of approval from strangers.
Social media has affected society as a whole. You may look at all of those points that I have mentioned in the article and think ‘Is that true? Is this what I really do?” Those are questions that everyone asks themselves when they learn these types of things that we are so oblivious to. Let’s learn as a society and change the bad to the good when it comes to social media.
Works Cited
- Siddiqui, Shabnoor. “Social Media Its Impact with Positive and Negative Aspects.” Https://Jogamayadevicollege.ac.in/Uploads/1586197536.Pdf, Mats University.
- Akram, W. “A Study on Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society.” Https://Www.researchgate.net/Profile/Waseem-Akram-19/Publication/323903323_A_Study_on_Positive_and_Negative_Effects_of_Social_Media_on_Society/Links/5ab1c064a6fdcc1bc0bfefef/A-Study-on-Positive-and-Negative-Effects-of-Social-Media-on-Society.pdf, R.Kumar, 2017.
- Baym, Nancy K. “Social Media and the Struggle for Society — Nancy K. Baym, 2015.” SAGE Journals, SAGE, 11 May 2015, journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305115580477.
