Social Media’s impact on society

There is no doubt that social media has great power, but how does it affect today’s society? I am going to elaborate positive and negative effects on this intensive mobile use. I am also going to talk about how social media has taken over our lives. Research shows that in average people check their phone 110 times a day. News, messages, music, games, calls, surfing, videos, pictures, articles and access to see what your friends are doing draws our attention, it has become a huge part of our lives and a large part of young people are more or less addicted. Whatever we do, our phone is with us.

Positive sides of social media

Enhances our connectivity

There are 2 billion social network users each month around the globe. Together we constitute a large network, all connected to each other through mutual friends and acquaintances. The internet has become our way to connect and create a community. We are reducing communication barriers and learning to get along with other cultures and religions. Another thing social media contributes with is building relationships and making new friends. You can meet people with the same interests as you or you can contact old friends you have not spoken with for years. There are countless dating sites where you can date people online.

A way of getting empathy

It has also become a way to empathize with each other. For instance when you lose someone you loved and post a eulogy on Facebook, people will comment and condolence. When the massacre on Utøya happened, news and affected wrote and posted on social media and people who did not even know the victims, showed so much empathy and sympathy.

 

 Voices can be heard and people can inspire each other

The internet is also a place where your voice can be heard, either through blogging, commenting on news, posting and sharing on Facebook and Twitter or writing directly to the person/persons you want to receive your message. Social media allows us to inspire each other. You can watch a girl from another country’s YouTube video and get inspired. Maybe she is dressing a certain way that you like or having a lifestyle that you want. Maybe you want to travel the world and find inspiration in someone who has done it already.

Find information and ask questions

The internet is also a great place to find information. Whether you are writing an article about dinosaurs or you want to know how far away Jupiter is. You can also ask questions and get answers. There are several forum pages where people can discuss and ask questions to both professionals and each other. If you are pregnant, for instance, there are forums for pregnant women where they discuss and asks each other questions. If you are sick or having weird symptoms, you can ask a doctor online what you are suffering from and what you can do to feel better. If you are interested in the ocean, you can find almost all the information there is to find about the ocean, on the internet.

Entertainment

A huge part of social media includes entertainment. Surfing, scrolling through Instagram photos, watching Youtube videos, playing games and chatting with friends are all things I find myself doing when I am bored, waiting for something/someone or just want to avoid certain situations.  I do not think I only speak for myself when I say that I have a tendency to use social media as an excuse to avoid uncomfortable conversations and situations I don’t want to take part in. When I am sitting on the bus, on my way home from school and I am tired and exhausted, I usually pick up my phone to listen to music. We have access to entertainment via our smartphones and computers, wherever we are, whenever we want.

In touch with the world

Almost all kinds of business happens over the internet, shopping online is getting more and more popular and communication between countries happens through the internet. Social media enhances our connectivity. Many would say that we are getting in touch with the world.

Negative sides of social media

Loneliness, isolation and depression

Even though there are many positive sides with social media, it is far from only good aspects; loneliness, isolation and depression are just some of the negative ones. People feel lonelier even though they are surrounded by people, because the social media has become some sort of a new reality for many. When we write a message to someone or post something, we expect responds and if we don’t get attention we feel lonely, just like in the real world, if you feel that nobody cares or gives you attention, you feel lonely. Let’s say you post something you are proud of on Facebook, then you go to your feed and leave friendly comments and like others pictures and updates, you also send a few messages to your closest friends. It is getting late so you go to bed, but you have this inner turmoil, you need to check Facebook one last time. You log in and expect replies and comments on your recent post, but all you meet is an empty notification and an empty inbox. You get dissatisfied. You get irritated. No one is around to talk to you, and you feel… lonely. It has become an obsession because we are always checking the news feed, recent messages, missed calls, forecast, the latest music, celebrity world, likes on photos and videos, what your friends are doing and so on. Social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Youtube and Tumblr draws our interest and can keep our attention for long periods.

“Social media is addictive precisely because it gives us something which the real world lacks: it gives us immediacy, direction, and value as an individual.”

- David Amerland (“15 inspiring social media quotes,” 01:54:27 UTC)

People compare their life with others and get poor self esteem.

Talking about liking and commenting on your friend’s posts, people have a bad habit of comparing their own lives with others. People want to show off their best side, which means that they only share the most beautiful photos, funniest videos and exiting stories. After logging off social media, many feel that their life is boring and sad compared to others, but even though friends and strangers has an impact on us, fashion world has most of the influence on today’s society. Models, style icons and celebrities have long, thick and healthy hair, flawless skin and thin and toned bodies. This is an example of proliferation of misinformation even though the opposite is proved. We make ourselves believe that this is real, even though we all know the photos is photo-shopped and edited. Why is that? Probably because we are surrounded by it all the time and it has become a new reality for us. Peoples’ self-esteem is weakened and countless young girls are really struggling. Regardless of this, these celebrities are role models for countless young people nowadays and their fanbase need to know every single detail about them. Did Beyoncé take plastic surgery? Who is Justin Biebers new girlfriend? Is Kim Kardashian pregnant? Their lives are definitely not private, because everything they do gets published and shared with the entire human race. They are like a book without a locker and everyone who would like to can read it. This allows the population to make conclusions about them without knowing them in real life. Many of these conclusions are rumours or misinterpreted situations.

Cyber bullying

Speaking about rumours. Cyber bullying has become a major problem around the world. Cases of appearance bullying and made up stories are numerous. Approximately 80% thinks that online bullying is easier to get away with than bullying in person. About 43% of kids and teenagers has been bullied, and nearly 4500 are committing suicide because of it, per year! This is a serious problem and can seriously undermine a person’s life.

Personal lives are more public

Social networking sites encourage people to be more public about their personal lives, because intimate details of our lives can be posted so easily. Name, date of birth, where you live, where you come from, personal details and other things that refers to a person's identity is published in several social media and the information can be retrieved from the entire world's population. This exposes especially children to online predators. Men, mostly, are taking advantages of young teenagers and children who doesn’t have netiquette.

Encouraging poor grammar and spelling

Social media are encouraging poor grammar and spelling. Are you writing an article in school, you make sure that the grammar is right and that you have remembered uppercase and lowercase letters. After school, however, it is much faster to write shorter sentences with abbreviations and slang. This becomes a bad habit as young children grow and develop their writing skills, their writing at school are influenced by bad writing outside of school.

Multitasking

Our obsession about social media leads us to multitask. Even though the internet has become some sort of a new reality, we still have things to do in real life. For example, you are having a conversation with someone on the phone, you are listening to music and you are thinking about what you are going to eat for dinner today, all this while you are driving a car. Research has shown that our brains don’t have the capacity to fully focus our attention on two things at once. Multitasking hinders information processing and productivity.

My opinion and conclusion

I think that social media has its benefits. I use it every day, but I am not abusing it. I try not to spend too much time on my electronics, but I find it hard sometimes when my friends in the USA are calling me on Skype eleven pm and my phone in blinking constantly because I’m a member in several group chats. It is rare that I cannot find answer to my questions on the internet, I find a lot of information and facts on pages like Wikipedia. If not, I just ask friends and family on Facebook. Social media allows me to keep in touch with people I live far away from and haven’t seen in a long time. For example, I keep in touch with several of my second cousins ​​and third cousins ​​from Oslo and Stavanger. I am also having conversations with people I met on Mathilde expedition, 3 years ago. My aunt just moved to Lofoten so now I can keep in touch with her ​​also through social media. I can’t ignore that social media has had an impact on my self esteem sometimes, nut  I don’t think that I have any bad experiences with social media, because my parents learned me netiquette and how to behave online from an early stage. I do know people who abuse social media and have gotten problems because of it, though. Young people need to learn how to use social media correctly, how else will they know what is right and what is wrong? And what is smart not share with everyone. Social media takes a huge part of our lives. We are available from the moment we open our eyes in the morning until we close them again at night. For many, the first and the last thing they do during the day, is checking their phone. I think social media is a good thing as long as we learn to use it wisely.