Social media make your life worse - Essay Example

? Social Media Social media is a platform where people from different backgrounds interact, exchangeideas or information in virtual networks. It depends on mobile and web based technologies to create platforms through which communities use, share and discuss the already existent information or content. Some of the most known social media platforms include facebook, twitter and Skype to name but a few (Kaplan 35). This has made the world to be a global village, since people from different locations and environments can make communications without necessarily having to be physically present. Social media changes how communications are effected between organizations, communities and individuals at different levels. Social media has always been associated with positive incomes yet this is not the case, however its benefits are countless (Nigel 60). The negative side of the social media has impacts felt hard and they could destroy one’s view of the social sites, the world and even themselves. The benefits of using social media include; building good reputations, online marketing, career opportunities and income. For the individuals, they are able to improve their social relationships as well as networking as observed from an interview conducted between Crawford and Wang. Crawford admits to the advantage of the social media by saying “social media increase our social interaction and give us more ways to make social connections. It is help to make some new friends, something like that, everyone should like social media.” Social media uses different technologies that include; use of blogs, wall posting and crowd sourcing. Social media could interfere with the way someone views some ideas hence make one’s life worse if it’s not used in the right manner for the desired purpose. As Crawford states, “Social media wastes our time in chatting but we are totally updated with the present news which were happening around us. So, don't see social networking as threats but just as the opportunities where we can interact with the people globally.” It is evident that as much as social media has attractive features that make one glued to their mobile phones or computers for more time, it leads to time wastage as internet users spend more time on the social media site that on any other site. A research in the US shows that the total time spent on social media in mobile phones and personal computers increased by 37% in a year that is 121 billion minutes in 2012 compared to 88 billion minutes in 2012. Some school children even spend more time on social media than on their books; this corrupts their mind and makes them not concentrate on their school work. All this time wasted or spent unwisely in the social media leads to poor grades in school and under performance in the work stations. Social media has always been criticized because of its exclusiveness that is most sites do not allow the transfer of information from one site to another. This therefore leads to disparity in the sharing of information that is available due to untrustworthiness, informational reliability, media content ownerships and the different meanings of information as displayed by these social platforms (Kaplan 72). Information from one site to another cannot be transferred to another hence creates individualism, which allows them to advertise and display their own information (Nigel 42). Some information that is displayed on most social media sites is destructive rather than constructive to one’s mind and view of daily activities. Some information regarding cults, death, use of warfare weapons could make one curious and ready to venture or find out the truth about such information. Pornographic pictures and linkages destroys one’s brain because they tend to be addictive, this leads to an increase in the number of rape cases, violence and other activities that are against our way of culture and belief as people from different backgrounds (Nigel 55). Social media leads to the spread of violence groups or organized gangs, which could harm the security of a country. Dark nets are social sites of organized violence groups that are only known to the group members alone and not even the government agencies can detect the existence of these illegal groups. These groups are usually highly secretive and only known members are connected to the sites so that they get information of the activities taking place in the groups. These illegal groups also spread destructive messages and recruit people using the social media into their violent groups (Kaplan 78). The social media has negative consequences on the health behaviors of people; this is according to a 2010 research done by the Case Western Reserve School of medicine. The research showed that hyper-networking and hyper texting resulted to unhealthy behaviors in teens including taking alcohol, drugs, smoking and other sexual activities. Hyper- networking also leads to depression, drug and alcohol abuse, poor sleeping patterns, poor performance in the academic sector, murder and worse suicide. Hyper- networking is the use of social networks for more than three hours a day, while hyper texting is sending more than 120 messages a day on social media (Kaplan 57). Social media also leads to isolation; in the sense that while it appears to bring people across the internet together, people who spend more time on this social networks experience less face interactions in their daily lives. This makes a person passive and concentrates only on them and the crowd they call friends on these media sites, yet they have never been close in any other way with such people (Wellman 95). Social isolation is not in any way constructive as it can lead to a series of problems mentally, emotionally, psychologically and physically. The problems likely to be experienced include depression, anxiety and somatic complains. Isolation from the interactive and social world also leads to impairment of hormones in the brain, hence the reason why socially isolated people usually experience high levels of stress, aggression, mental issues and anxiety (Kaplan 120). Social media creates a false sense of connection as it makes it difficult for us to distinguish between the numerous casual relationships that have been created in the different social sites and relationships that are fostered in our real life interactions in the real world (Kaplan 64). Due to these numerous connections, false information travels very fast through the social media. As Wang observes in the interview, “The fake news has influence to people.” Therefore, focusing and wasting much of our time and psychic energy on these meaningless relationships weakens our real interactive relationships and the validity of the information shared across the social media becomes questionable. One can have so many friends that are far spread across the world and few friends in the real world, yet it is these real friends created through our daily interactions who can actually come to our help when we need them most (Wellman 111). Social media could also encourages the use of poor grammar and spelling especially in student’s academics, since most of the sites do not concentrate much on the spellings or grammar. Some sites even encourage the use of poor language; slang use has always been a trend for most youngsters who have joined these sites. In their academics, such students cannot express themselves as required by their lecturers or teachers, hence leads to poor grades in learning institutions (Kaplan 43). Cyberbullying, that is the use of information and communication technology to threaten, harass, humiliate another person is a common name in the social media networks. Its targets are mostly the vulnerable children or teens in which the perpetrators anonymously pose as people who the victim can absolutely trust and later terrorize them before their peers (Nigel 75). The devastation brought up by these online attacks can leave deep mental scars which could later drive one to commit suicide. The anonymity that is afforded online has severe dark impulses that could otherwise be suppressed. Social networks do not encourage privacy since intimate details of people’s lives can be posted so easily and is available to everyone else who uses that network. As Crawford shares, “ I know of a guy who can’t survive without social media, he likes to share everything on his Facebook, things like every meal he eats, and he is known to update his Facebook page every 5 minutes, talking about what he would be currently doing.” The things that are normally posted remains available to be viewed by everyone indefinitely, even though most sites allow users to control who see whatever they have posted, the limitations are often forgotten or can be difficult to control (Nigel 80). An example of a picture posted in a party with many friends can look harmless at one point in life, however when an employer is doing background checks, the photo will not send a good impression. This could ruin the reputation of the employee and the trust and honesty vested upon them by their employer will all be gone. This could go a long way in ruining a person’s reputation in the case where they are in an interview and their social sites do not portray anything good concerning their work, the interview panel will not consider the person fit for the job. This could also lead to denial or termination of contracts if one’s profile in the social site does not create the best impression (Wellman 83). Social media also reduce the inability to make quick decisions in a critical manner, since people prefer to go post their problems online so that they can be advised by their peers. Such advice from fellow peers is not the best and may only provide quick fix solutions as one picks what they only perceive to be the best solution (Nigel 67). This inability to come up with creative and critical decisions because the decision makers are present does not make one’s brain active in their daily activities. The media does not also encourage there and then making of the best decisions, it encourages procrastination due to the assurance that a quick fix factor will always be present (Wellman 105). A 20 year old who cannot make good decisions for their personal problems now cannot make a good leader who will be able to handle matters of national and international concern in the future. This trend is really worrying and if nothing is done about it, then the future will not be bright for most countries who view youth as the future leaders. Youths should currently invest most of their time in mind engaging activities that enables them be able to make decisions effectively. The social media has had negative effects outweighing the positive expected patterns, depending on how people use this media. The way people use the media and the information posted on these sites talk a lot about the personality of a person. The media can be one of the best to gain or acquire and share information between different people of the society sine interactions between different people occur across different international levels (Nigel 125). One could gain a lot from the use of the social media as they get to understand the views of other people on a broader perspective, however, it could also prove fatal if one relies on these media only and remain passive. Social media requires personal control of how one uses it. By spending less time on building non lasting relationships and focus more on being engaged in activities that build their minds is what would be recommended on the people who spend most of their time in the social media. As Crawford says, “Fake news will affect everyone and no one can make right choice all the time. This is a disadvantage about social media. However, it is depends on personal experience, for example, i won’t believe some stupid fake news most time.” Not all information gathered should be used and it is upon the various individuals to limit to what extent their engagement with the social media should go. The social media should also challenge one’s thinking of different problems that are currently being faced in the world (Wellman 125). Works Cited Kaplan Andreas. Users of the World, Unite. The Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons. New York. 2010. Print. Nigel Morgan. The Complete Guide to Social Media from the Social Media guys. New York. 2012. Print. Wellman, Barry. The New Social Operating System. MIT. California. 2012. Print. Read More