The Influence of Social Media
Does the society still maintain the claim that the millennial is the only generation inseparably attached to social media platforms? The society is in denial that half of the population is now wholeheartedly sucked by the digital life continues to throw judgments on the young generation for making social media an extraordinary part of their living. However, the truth is that almost everyone existing now values the media and has incorporated it to be part of the critical aspect of their lives. The digital platforms extensively present countless benefits ranging from social networking to business marketing. The sad side is that today, social media is harmful to its users because it leads to an ineffective lifestyle, social isolation, and increasing addiction.
Spending more time on social media is strongly linked to feelings of loneliness. For some people, the perception remains opposite because they believe that the internet with its platforms helps people to connect with thousands of people. On the contrary, social media networking substitutes the real emotional connection that people experience on face to face interactions (Keenan et al 4400). Nowadays, the old habits of inviting friends and having conversations full of fun moments and laughter get interrupted by mobile phone notifications, which makes people frequently check their notifications bars to comment on their follower’s tags and new feeds. However, the typical interaction has significantly suffered from these platforms influence, which means that people who always have to be on their phone going from one app to another misses out on connecting with the people around and end up experiencing disconnection from the social community. Social media gives people a community full of acceptance until a follower in one of the platforms uploads a post having fun and reminds one that the friendship they have with the follower online exists online. At the end of the day, the people one is meeting on social media are going to exclude them as they have their real-life fun. Human beings are social beings naturally, but now people spend time glue to screens trying to catch up with fictional people and destroying the anticipated human connection. Watching the people one interacts with on social media shows their separate real-life moments may suddenly hit a person that the social community is more of fantasy as reaffirming to them that they have no social life (Chou et al 119). Therefore, social media has robbed people of a meaningful social connection and caused feelings of isolation.
People who excessively use social media demonstrate signs, which indicate addiction. With the extreme value of socializing online, people now have developed the “fear of missing out,” commonly referred to as FOMO. Studies on the effects of social media on individuals have reported that some people spend more than 60hours a week on social media and check their media platforms 28 times a day ( Kuss & Griffiths 2011). The brains adapt the habits we train it to, and if we excessively train the mind to something, then it becomes hard to survive without performing the particular pattern. The social media addiction can be as bad as alcohol addiction. When one gets used to frequently staying on their phones, then it may get on their way to perform essential tasks like working, driving, and studying, among others. The possible effects, which can social media addiction can result in may cost one a job or even having an accident for checking their phones, while driving (Griffiths & Demetrovics 2014). Hence, the digital life has added another type of addiction to the growing list of dangerous addiction the society is trying to eliminate.
The social media makes people want to redefine and put up a personality, and a lifestyle that they think will get triumph acceptance. The social media users fall for lifestyle facades on the internet, which they strain and make efforts to match. On social media, people want to portray a prosperous, happy life but not the struggles they face to attain the lifestyle they lavishly show (Wahlen and Mikko 441). Hence, people get caught up trying to have the life they see others having to forget that each story has two sides, and the shiny lifestyle they see on these media platforms has an ugly side, which people feel ashamed to show to the world. Instead of showing contentment with the real lifestyle one is having, people switch to sadness wishing for a different one because of the influence of social media. Also, social media facilitates laziness through people watching successful people enjoy life differently, and they assume that the lifestyle only takes going to photo-shoots and uploading happy photos of them enjoying expensive trips and food. People want to compare their lifestyles with the “celebrities” way of life (Chan et al 143). Social media make people forget that one has to work hard to earn income to support the expensive lifestyles because people never show the whole journey to success; the success part looks good on pictures. Hence, social media fuels people with ineffective lifestyles.
In conclusion, today, social media is harmful to its users because it leads to an ineffective lifestyle, social isolation, and increasing addiction. Spending more time on social media is strongly linked to feelings of loneliness because social media networking substitutes the real emotional connection that people experience on face to face interactions. People who excessively use social media demonstrate signs, which indicate addiction since the brain adapts the habits we train it to perform. If we excessively train the mind to something, then it becomes hard to survive without performing a particular pattern, and social media is no different. The social media users fall for lifestyle facades on the internet, which they strain and make efforts to match.
Works Cited
Chan, Kara, and Cong, Zhang. “Living in a celebrity-mediated social world: The Chinese experience.” Young Consumers 8.2 (2007): 139-152.
Chou, Hui-Tzu Grace, and Nicholas Edge. “They are happier and having better lives than I am”: the impact of using Facebook on perceptions of others’ lives.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 15.2 (2012): 117-121.
Griffiths, M.D., Kuss, D.J. & Demetrovics, Z. (2014). Social networking addiction: An overview of preliminary findings. In K. Rosenberg & L. Feder (Eds.), Behavioral Addictions: Criteria, Evidence, and Treatment (pp.119-141). New York: Elsevier.
Keenan, Andrew, and Ali Shiri. “Sociability and social interaction on social networking websites.” Library Review 58.6 (2009): 438-450.
Kuss, D.J. & Griffiths, M.D. (2011). Online social networking and addiction: A literature review of empirical research. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 8, 3528-3552.
Wahlen, Stefan, and Mikko Laamanen. “Consumption, lifestyle, and social movements.” International Journal of Consumer Studies 39.5 (2015): 397-403.