Social Media: Good or Bad?

Since our society has taken a turn in recent decades, so has social media. It has taken sharp turns. As technology advanced, so did social media platforms and they’re trying to provide a better experience to users who use their services daily.

But before we jump onto anything let’s talk about the major question: What is social media?

Social media can be termed as forms of communication that people establish through social media like Facebook, Twitter, Twitter, Reddit, YouTube.

We could say that social media has not relied entirely on communication as it has loads of other types of content floating freely and sometimes, restricted.

Anyhow, let’s get to the advantages and disadvantages of social media.

1. It connects everyone. Yes, it does. Social media has allowed people living in distances to call each other without a hassle. They can share photos, videos and anything they want without taking too much time.
2. Learning. Social media has helped people to learn, to grow. Information, news, and knowledge are widely available and it is faster than a television set. Since people have started relying on these mediums, televisions are being abandoned.
3. Information and updates. This point is linked to the one above. People can easily retrieve information that once took hours to help them get to work, or perhaps not drive to a route that is going under trouble.
4. Social media is like a community. Here, people share their experiences and seek help from others. Often, people who are facing difficult phases in life seem to find happiness and comfort in seconds.
5. Social media helps businesses to grow. Businesses are a vital part of every country and social media becomes them to increase their size. This will earn the country better revenues from taxes and the overall lifestyle of the people.

But where there are advantages, there are drawbacks too:

1. Fraud and scams are prevalent in social media platforms. People go through severe cases of trauma just because of losing wealth or property to some hacker online. It’s easy to steal someone’s info today and use it to your benefit.
2. Reputation. Since anyone can say anything on social media, people let loose and say what they wish. This tarnishes the reputation of the people, especially those who are known by the public to be celebrities or famous for their work or skill.
3. Health issues are common. Getting hooked onto social media platforms can increase chances for a person to stay in the same position for hours. This can make them gain weight, which is called obesity. This will give birth to even fatal diseases. There are many harmful diseases associated with getting fat and once it starts, it never stops. Social media sets the trend of locking the user’s attention completely until their body starts hurting all of a sudden. It also ruins their spine and creates problems due to excessive sitting. Not working out or moving around can make a person dull, stiff and lose focus completely.
4. Social media is addictive, I’ll give you that. It’s so easy to spend hours and hours on Facebook, Instagram, and other sites as people scroll intensively and don’t even realize how they’re locked into it. This may even isolate them from everyone else in their family, or society.
5. One great disadvantage of social media is that people idolize the things that they are supposed to hate. Suppose a movie actor is drinking alcohol. A teenager watching will possibly try to imitate his favorite actor someday or the other and this will create problems for the whole society.

Is social media good or bad? We’ll let you be the judge of that