Miguel Beltre
Professor Shearer
ENGL 1000
April, 17 2023
The Negative effects of Social Media
Over the last decades we have had many technological advancement, many of those advancements have an impact on the daily life of many people. The impact and influence it had can be disguised as something that innovated the way many of us communicate and entertain ourselves. That is known as Social Media which is a significant factor of the way we communicate. The internet revolution has had a big impact on everything nowadays, there is no faster way to be updated of what’s going on in the world without social media. If you want to communicate with anybody now, you can just send a message to family, friends or even your boss. It is also where millions of people go to find entertainment. Social media has its pros and it has its cons but in this Essay I will focus particularly on three significant negative impacts of social media; such as Mental Health, Cyberbullying and Privacy.
One of the most significant ways in which social media affects mental health is by causing addiction. Social media platforms are designed to keep users engaged for as long a time as possible, this can lead to individuals spending hours constantly bombarding with notifications which can create compulsions on the user. As shown in the article “Is Social Media Bad For Your Mental Health?” By News Bureau he clarified that “Teens have a less fixed sense of self that relies more on feedback from peers. Also, teens and young adults have a less mature prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that regulates emotional responses to social rewards. Research studies note the connection between use of social media and its undesirable outcomes that increase incidence of anxiety, stress, depression, body image concerns, and loneliness in teens and young adults (APA, 2022).”(Bureau) That example shows how social media negatively affects the mental health of its user by increasing the anxiety levels, particularly in younger generations. The pressure to create and maintain a fake online life leads to depression. Another example that shows a significant way in which social media affects mental health is in the article “Stop The Negative Effects Of Social Media Today” by Chioma Njoku showing his experience “I love Facebook, but the negative effects of social media can also leave me feeling depressed. For instance, once, I opened my Facebook homepage only to be presented with a Facebook Memory from a year ago. I was hurt and angry because the photo brought back my memories of that traumatic experience. The memory was a photo of my wrecked car because of a hit-and-run incident. I also remembered that the group of people I had once surrounded myself with did not post comments acknowledging the accident.”(Njoku) for example how he personally felt with social media, he explains how social media made him feel depressed. That is just an experience of him as a user, imagine how millions of people feel depressed due to social media.
Another significant way in which social media has a significant effect is with Cyberbullying. Cyberbullying refers to any form of bullying that takes place online, through social media platforms, messaging apps, or other digital communication channels. The effects of cyberbullying can be severe, and social media is identified as a key facilitator of cyberbullying. As shown in “Social Media Addiction Linked To Cyberbullying” by Kathryn Kao “Social networking sites are designed to give people a dopamine hit, she added, and some people compulsively look for that hit. “It’s feeding into that addictive behavior, and they may be using cyberbullying as a way to get likes, shares, comments and retweets,” she said. “That’s the common thread you see in behavioral addictions—people start relying on a rewarding behavior as a way to make them feel better when they’re experiencing negative emotions.(Kao) That example shows how many many social media users use cyberbullying as a way to get more clout in social media, that is not the only problem. Social media gets so addicting that Cyberbullying is the only way many users feel like they are cool, the sad part is that many social media platforms don’t do anything about it. Another example that shows how social media has a significant effect in Cyberbullying specially in young adults and teens is shown in the article “Effects of Cyberbullying: What Parents and Teenagers Need to Know” by Matthew Bergman where he states that “Cyberbullying is becoming increasingly common among teenagers. The Pew Research Center study mentioned earlier found that the percentage of teenagers who have experienced cyberbullying has increased from 41% in 2012 to 59% in 2015. This may be because more and more teenagers are using smartphones and social media sites, and these sites are becoming more popular among this age group. The Cyberbullying Research Center also found that teenagers who experience cyberbullying are more likely to experience other forms of bullying, such as face-to-face bullying and online harassment.”(Bergman) That example shows how cyberbullying has a bigger impact on the youth because they are the largest users of social media. As also shown Cyberbulying can go face to face but that can all be stopped if social media companies can fix the Cyberbullying crisis that runes the life of many teens and young adults.
The last significant problem in social media is the privacy conflicts in social media which is the collection and use of personal information. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram collect vast amounts of data from their users, including personal information, photos, likes, comments, and other activities. Many users believe that just because they have a private account their information is hidden; which is wrong. One example that shows that is the article “5 Social Media Site Privacy Issues You Should Worry About” by Susan Morrow “Much of it is obviously personal, such as name, email address, and so on. But other data, like our likes, dislikes, online excursions, and geo-location is less obviously about us, but still gives social media platforms much highly useful information. And it isn’t useful just to social media business models; it is also useful to others, not just cybercriminals, but employers, insurance companies, and many others who can use our personal information to tailor their view of us and our supposed needs.”(Morrow) That example shows how the user’s privacy is not safe in social media. Many valuable personal information of other users is very useful for the many cybercriminals. Imagine someone knowing your information that is not something comfortable. Another example that shows privacy conflict in social media is shown in the article “Social Media, Ethics and the Privacy Paradox” by Nadine Barrett-Maitland and Jenice Lynch “Recent reports indicate that some of the largest companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook as well as various government agencies are collecting information without consent and storing it in databases for future use. It is almost impossible to say privacy exists in this digital world.”(Barrett-Maitland, Lynch) That example shows how many social media companies profit from the users information. That also shows how they steal your data and save your information for future plans. It’s very common that users search a product that they want online and then you see an ad about that same product in social media. That is not a coincidence that is the social media companies stealing your data and information.
In conclusion the three significant negative impacts of social media; such as Mental Health, Cyberbullying and Privacy should require careful consideration. Social media platforms must strike a balance between providing personalized content and protecting users’ mental health, torment and privacy. Users must also be aware of the risks associated with social media. Social media rapidly keeps growing and social media companies should do a better job on protecting ist users and not harming us, its users, the people that they profit from.
Bibliography
Bureau, News. Is Social Media Bad for Your Mental Health?: Middle Georgia State University, 16 June 2022, https://www.mga.edu/news/2022/06/is-social-media-bad-for-your-mental-health.php.
Bergman, Matthew. “Effects of Cyberbullying: What Parents & Teenagers Need to Know.” Social Media Victims Law Center, Effects of Cyberbullying: What Parents and Teenagers Need to Know, 7 Apr. 2023, https://socialmediavictims.org/cyberbullying/effects/.
Kao, Kathryn. “Social Media Addiction Linked to Cyberbullying.” UGA Today, University of Georgia, 30 Mar. 2021, https://news.uga.edu/social-media-addiction-linked-to-cyberbullying/.
Morrow, Susan, et al. “5 Social Media Site Privacy Issues You Should Worry About.” Infosec Resources, 7 Aug. 2021, https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/topic/5-social-media-site-privacy-issues-worry/.
Njoku, Chioma. “Stop the Negative Effects of Social Media Today.” Everyday Power, Stop the Negative Effects of Social Media Today, 3 Apr. 2023, https://everydaypower.com/stop-negative-effects-of-social-media/.
Shatz, Itamar. Effectiviology, N/A, https://effectiviology.com/dangers-of-social-media/.
