Advantages and Disadvantages Of Social Media

Just like Albert Einstein once said, “I fear the day technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” How right he was even though there were not devices like the ones we have nowadays. It is very ironic that now that we are more connected to other parts of the world, we are more separated from each other. What social media has to offer is enormous, of course it has advantages, but right now we are going to talk about the disadvantages of social media and how they have been affecting our life on a daily basis.

Social media has been one of the most revolutionary inventions of the decade before this one and that has evolved real fast this past decade. There is no lie when I say that at least 90%-95% of your social circle has at least one account on a social media; I have no proofs, but I do not have doubts either. Scrolling down on social media has converted into one of the activities we most do throughout the day. It is not a secret that social media consumes a big chunk of time and the outcome we receive is way littler than the time we spent on social media. If I ask you, are you willing to give yourself a break from social media? Your response might be No, but give me a chance to show how this can negatively affect your life on a daily basis.

You have heard the term social media, but what is it exactly? Well, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is, “ forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos).” As you can imagine, social media are those platforms where you can add or follow you know or do not know, and you can share content and other people can react to it. Nowadays, social media is a tool used in so many different ways and each one person can use it with different purposes and goals. From posting a picture with your dog to support a politician. Do not limit the ways to use social media to my words, as I was saying, there are unimaginative ways to take advantage of a tool like social media. Unfortunately, all of this possibilities to use the social media are not always with the best intentions and that is one of the risks of not playing it safe in terms of using social media.

As I was telling before, social media is a tool with advantages, however, is a tool that can be a double edge knife if you do not handle it the correct way. Some disadvantages are: Lacking of emotional connection, people think they have the right to be hurtful, communication face-to-face is poor, conveys inauthentic expression of feelings, diminishes understanding and critical thinking, facilitates laziness, creation of a false self-image, and cause of distraction.

One of the first disadvantages is the lack of emotions inside the text messages or content shared. You can receive an apology from somebody through a message, but it would be kind of hard telling if the other person really meant it. The over-use of social media can affect our handle and how we express emotions.

Another disadvantage and one of the most important is the belief that people has the right to be mean at others with no apparent reason, and even if they have a reason that does not give them especial features to be mean at people. There are many reasons on why people can attack you through your social media. Either your political point of view, a photo doing your favorite hobby or anything that does not have sense at all. People are mean and they think it is okay to make someone else feel sad.

It is more noticeable that some people have less skills to communicate face-to-face what they want to say or what they think. The lack of emotional connection that social media gives can affect this as well. Some people need to stop texting and do more talking with other people, so they seem affected by this disadvantage.

Another disadvantage is conveying a false expression of feelings which makes a bit harder to think communicate the correct way by using social media. One example of this is typing ‘hahaha’ or ‘LOL’ which are ways to express laughs or that something was funny. Nowadays, terms like these are used by millions and what makes this feel so plastic it is that is inauthentic.

Using social media can diminish understanding and critical thinking. There are less conversations with value in it. People have been using social media for so long that this has affected their way of thinking and perceiving messages. Critical thinking can be affected by all point of views you can receive by exploring the feed of a social media. If you are not careful, you may start stopping, analyzing, and evaluating by your own means information received.

Another problem that social media can cause is leaving a window open for laziness to strike in. For instance, instead of going to the living room with your mom to talk with her, you would start texting her. What provokes laziness is the ease of doing things that normally would take more time to do.

A very evident disadvantage is the creation of a false self-image. On social media, it is rare to see something that does not look perfect or good news. On social media, everything is perfect and that is not real life, there are a lot of things that are not perfect in the outer world. It is not normal to act like everything is perfect when is not.

At last but not least, cause of distraction is the last disadvantage of this list. As I was telling before, social media is an enormous time-suck. Social media causes distraction either you are at job, school or driving. When you need to focus, it is better to put your phone away to avoid distractions.

Not everything about this paper is bad. Now, that we have reviewed the disadvantages of using social media, I can talk about the positive effects on your life when you stop using social media at least for a period of time.

Furthermore, quitting social media can be hard at the beginning, but it can be so fruitful in the long run. Now these days can be hard not using social media and it is okay if you have social media but having a break from it can have a positive effect on your life on a daily basis. Some advantages of leaving social media for a while are: you will get more effective at doing work, your creative part of you will start getting better, you will feel less stressed, you will also feel more self-assured, you will be more likely to get more sleep, you will get better at face-to-face communications, you will find more and better ways to stop boredom, you will start getting to know more about yourself, your decision-making skills will get better, and you will develop more emotional intelligence.

Moreover, of course it can be hard to give yourself a break from social media, but it would be a crime to tell you the advantages of quitting social media without giving you some advices to stop using them. I assure you that this advices will help you to start de-attach from your social media.

You can start by turning off your notifications, this will help to stop the ‘FOMO’, Fear Of Missing Out, a new term that is used for the urge to check on the novelties that happens around ourselves.

Another thing that can help you is getting a hobby so you can start dedicating more of your time to a productive activity. Getting a hobby will only bring you positive effects to your life on a daily basis.

What is also recommended when using social media is not using them when you are in a sensible mood because watching something you might not want to will make an awful reaction and will make you feel worst.

You need to be aware that social media is like watching Netflix, sometimes when you start, it is hard to stop. Another aspect where social media and Netflix have in common is that everything is perfect. Giving you a break from social media will give you a relief if you have problems. Everyone has problems, but they do not post it because that is not what the people wants. This can make you think twice before you start using social media.

Another tip that helps very well is tracking the time you spend online and the time you spend in each social media. When you realize how much time you spend before your phone by watching videos or just scrolling down the feed, you will be disgusted to know how much time you dedicate to the social media every day. I will assure it is a ridiculous amount. This will help you consider stop using some apps so you can manage better your time and take advantage of it.

All things considered, most technology nowadays are helpful and are tools that will help us and we should take advantage of it, however, like everything, these inventions has disadvantages that can negatively affect our life on a daily basis. If you are not careful with social media, this can be turn into a double-edge knife. So, tell me, are you willing to give yourself a break from social media now?