Social Media Effects

Social media could be the lead cause of suicide. Social media has been ruining the young for many years now and it is only getting worse. The youth are becoming more addicted to each social media and there are more and more platforms coming out all the time now. Social media practically ruined any kind of privacy people use to have and are ruining relationships or future job opportunities.

            It is important for the parents to realize that there is a problem with social media and to limit their children from the use of it. There is a lack of restraint among social media users and the legal guardians of such. Eliminating the use of social media could bring rebellion within the household but limitation with replacement of another activity could be very healthy for not only the child but for the entire family as a whole. There are scenarios where parents are not limiting their kids amount of time and dedication to social media because they are just as addicted to it as their kids are, if not worse. There have been multiple accounts where I have been out to dinner and I see the entire family sitting there on their phones on social media and only looking up to get a bite to eat. If children are limited their use of social media, we could have a lot of issues resolved for the children’s mental health and social interaction.

            This is the root of it all, social media is not seen as an issue. Due to social media not being seen as an issue, it grows worse with time. Eliminate social media and there is no use for this entire paper. It isn’t because of the youth or even the parents. It is that God-forsaken software that is put into their hands that only criticizes the users and makes them live up to expectations they are taught they could never reach.

            Someone not reaching expectations causes depression; therefore, social media causes depression. Cyberbullying is the number one cause of all of this. Cyberbullying has caused many children to take their lives and many more to never want to go to school to avoid the cyberbully. A channel called TheTalkTo, a news source on YouTube with over 5 million subscribers claims “42% of Teens say they have been the victims of online bullying.” With access to these social media platforms, these numbers will continue to rise. All of your cyberbullying is done through social media these days. If they get blocked on one platform they will just find another platform to continue their harassment. There have been attempts trying to fix this issue by telling the victim to just talk to someone about it and it will be resolved from there. If that was working, then cyberbullying wouldn’t still be a rising issue. To get rid of cyber bullying all together, online interaction would have to go away. Another very good way to dull the effect of cyberbullying, wouldn’t get rid of it, would be to limit the use of social media. If you are on social media way too much and find yourself getting more depressed and pessimistic about everything then it is time to take a break from it.

Speaking of taking a break from social media, there is a trend going around called a social media cleanse. A social media cleanse is taking a break from social media completely. This could be for just a day, a week, a month, or a year. After having an interview with Wesley Hill, a former social media marketer, he argued that “It allows you to have more confidence because you are no longer relying on other people.” Social media cleanses could lead to clarity of mind, a new-found hobby, closer relationships, healthier mental state, and totally different perspective of social media as a whole. This is becoming a trend because of people realizing that social media is hurting their relationships and their mental health. Social media cleanse can be a great way to eliminate the issue with social media. It is the best solution that doesn’t get rid of social media.

            I have had my ups and downs with both my activity within the platforms and my mental state while using them. I have been motivated after searching through social media and I have been super depressed and lacked all motivation after searching through my feeds. I took a social media cleanse about a year ago and the way I felt at the end of it was unexplainable. I felt so much joy about everything I did, my grades got better in school, my friends and I became closer, and I experienced new things that I wouldn’t have before with my face buried into that small screen that “controls” so many people’s lives. An expert in the field, Robert Agee, who owns Revamp Marketing, a social media marketing firm, claims “when you judge other people’s lifestyles and compare them to yours it can make you feel down on yourself.” So now, I am in huge conflict because I work for a social media marketing firm but I do not want to use social media personally. I always find myself pulling up Instagram or Snapchat to check what is going on even though every time I get on one of the platforms it just drains all motivation to do anything.

            Social media is, without a doubt addictive. There is no questioning this. This is the reason they are so successful and this is the reason why social media cleanses are even an action being performed. When asking Agee if he thought social media was addictive he simply agreed with “100%… when you see something that you like on social media… it releases the chemical dopamine in your brain which is the same chemical that is released when you smoke or drink….”

Trying to eliminate social media from someone’s life that was actively using it for a decent amount of time is almost like trying to take cigarettes from someone who had been smoking for several years. It gets a hold of its users and won’t let go. Its users will find themselves constantly looking back at it to check up on the news, events, or friends’ lives. Facebook purposely makes their content addictive. They go out of their way to make it as addictive as they can so that their users will come back to it time and time again. This is a huge ordeal right now with Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. Garret Sloane, a writer for the blog AdAge, wrote after interviewing Sean Parker “all the sharing and liking were used like a drug to get people hooked on checking Facebook non-stop. ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible,’ said Parker, referring to Facebook’s earliest mission.” How ironic is that the users thought they were consuming the content but really the content was consuming them and all of their time.

            How much time do you spend on social media? Watch and see how often your kids or friends check social media. Pay attention to how many times someone brings up what they found on social media throughout the day. Take a social media cleanse for just a week and watch what happens and how much you will realize that you didn’t have a clue of before. What would happen if everyone in your household took a social media cleanse at the same time. It would help the relationships within the house tremendously and I dare say make the house cleaner due to all that extra time. Asking yourself why you do or use something is almost as important as the actual thing you are doing or the thing you are using.

Having said all this, I do want to mention that I can think of a  positive side of social media.  It is a great tool for businesses as an easy , inexpensive marketing tool.  I mean think about it….how much do businesses spend each year on marketing?   I am sure it is in the thousands of dollars.  However, they can use the power of social media to advertise , and they can do it fairly cheap.  They can enither choose to do it themselves by creating a department or hiring an individual within the company, or they can use an Seo Consulting Service to manage it for them.   The added benefit of an Seo Consulting Service is they can assist them with much more than just their Social Media.    The influence and power of social media is so much more than we give it credit for.  

Article Credit:   Michael K. Brandon

Work Cited

Agee, Robert. Personal Interview. 3 April 2018.

Hill, Wesley. Personal Interview. 15 April 2018.

Keil, Duane. Discover Point Church. 2017, www.discoverpointchurch.com/social-media-

fast/ Accessed 10 April 2018.

Sloan, Garret. AdAge. 2017, www.adage.com/article/digital/sean-parker-worries-

facebook-rotting-children-s-brains/311238 Accessed 11 April 2018

TheTalkTo. “10 Reasons Why Social Media Is RUINING Our Lives” YouTube, 25 Nov. 2016,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIpiGRUc4x0