Negative effects of social media
social media
Social Media refers to “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content (Kaplan Andreas., Haenlein Michael: 2010). Social media operates in a dialogic transmission system i.e. many sources to many receivers(Pavlik & Maclntoch, John and Shawn: 2015). In the current era, the social media have turned out to form a very important part of our lives. This is primarily due to the fact that benefits of participating in social media have gone beyond simply social sharing to building reputation and bringing in career opportunities and monetary income. In addition, social media is inexpensive and accessible in that it enables anyone to publish or access information. It also has the highest capability of reaching large masses of people all over the world However, the effects of mass media are both negative and positive. As the saying goes, nothing is perfect. To some exact,though, I am actually of the opinion that the negative impacts associated and brought as a resultant of using mass media by far outweighs the positive outcomes. The negative effects of mass media are so evident that they are sometimes taken to be normality. In this article, am solely going to discuss the negative implications of mass media. This is to make you aware of the negative effects you have been assuming are not there yet you are gazing at them.
- Privacy Breaches and Corporate Espionage. Social Media provides the opportunity for individuals, corporations or governments to look at users’ profiles and acquire information about them. In some cases, this can lead to breaching users’ privacy. Likewise, job hunters are usually stalked on social networks. Employers “Facebook stalk” potential new employees and peek on their private life hence making a decision on whether to employ a person or not, based on their private life outings or interests.
- Electronic Relationships. Due to the domination of social media, many people have developed a new way of interacting and forming relationships with other people. This type of relationship has been denominated ‘electronic relationship’. It’s creating a confusion, almost erasing the line between those who are close to us, to those who are acquaintances rather than genuine friends. That seems to be driving us to relate more with acquaintances we aren’t close with, most of we don’t even know or recall, instead of interacting with the people we really care about.
- Negative effects On Communication Skills. For centuries humans have communicated with each other face to face, in different languages and dialects. As we grow up, we develop certain skills that allow us to relate and communicate with each other. In the last few years, social media has taken over the way we communicate. Instead of talking, looking at each other, while being at the same physical place, we seem to be spending much more time communicating behind a keyboard.
- Social media. addiction Studies show that 63% of Americans log on to Facebook daily, and 40% log on multiple times each day. People use the site for myriad reasons; however, it usually serves, on some level, the same basic purposes: distraction and boredom relief.
- Social media makes us compare our lives with others’. Posts on social media many times present an idealized version of what’s happening, what something looks like, or how things are going. This can lead users to constantly compare themselves to others and think less of their own lives. If things are going particularly well for people in your news feed and you’re having a rough day, of course this will likely negatively affect your mood.
- Social media gives rise to cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is an enormous concern, especially for adolescents. An organization that aims for internet safety, called Enough is Enough, conducted a survey that found 95% of teenagers who use social media have witnessed cyber bullying, and 33% have been victims themselves.
- Social media glamorizes drug and alcohol use. A study that explored the relationship between teenagers, social media, and drug use found that 70% of teenagers ages 12 to 17 use social media, and that those who interact with it on a daily basis are five times more likely to use tobacco, three times more likely to use alcohol, and twice as likely to use marijuana. In addition, 40% admitted they had been exposed to pictures of people under the influence via social media, suggesting correlation between the two factors. Although a correlation is all it is, it makes sense that social media would amp up the amount of peer pressure to which teenagers are exposed.
- Social media can make us unhappy. A study from the University of Michigan collected data about Facebook users and how it correlated with their moods. Simply put, they found that the more avid users were overall more unhappy than those who used the site less. Over more time, avid users also reported lower satisfaction in their lives overall.
social media
- Social media can lead to fear of missing out. Fear of missing out is a phenomenon that occurs when you feel pressure to be doing what everyone else is doing, attend every event, and share every life experience. It can evoke anxiety and cause social media users to question why everyone is “having fun without them
- Social media often leads to multitasking. How many tabs do you have open right now? How are you even concentrating on one thing? The thing is, you’re probably not – especially if one of those tabs is a social media site. Research has shown that our brains don’t have the capacity to fully focus our attention on two things at once, and instead multitasking causes our brain to quickly switch from one task to another. This hinders information processing and productivity. Closing out your Twitter feed can seriously help you get some work done.
- Decreased Productivity. While many businesses use social networking sites to find and communicate with clients, the sites can also prove a great distraction to employees who may show more interest in what their friends are posting than in their work tasks. Wired.com posted two studies which demonstrated damage to productivity caused by social networking: Nucleus Research reported that Facebook shaves 1.5% off office productivity while Morse claimed that British companies lost 2.2 billion a year to the social phenomenon. New technology products have become available that allow social networks to be blocked, but their effectiveness remains spotty.
To clear the mist, I want to make it clear that am not criticizing the social media. Am actually a habitual user of most of the social sites such as Facebook, twitter, instagram, google+ and I even have a blog site. What the post was primarily meant for was to guide you on the problems you might be going through unknowingly so that you can formulate a strategy of how to minimize or ‘kill’ them.
Thought you should know that!
You can read a more detailed and comprehensive post of the negative implications of social media on my blog by clicking this link Negative Effects of Social Media
picture credit: pixabay.com
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