Essay Sample about Social Media

Dear Social Media Users, 

There are approximately 4.62 million social media users as of January of 2022. With about 58% of the global population belonging to the network, it raises questions about the overall purpose and need for social media. Many of these questions are the effects on someone's mental health. Therefore, social media is most definitely detrimental to someone's mental health. It isn’t a foreign concept to be saying such a thing, users and non-users alike have nodded to this idea. Yet there is virtually nothing being done about this. It’s not about eliminating the use of social media but being critical in our use. 

Today the common lack of meaning in many regular and emotional conversations is because of social media. For instance, "As we ramp up the volume and velocity of online connections, we start to expect faster answers," MIT psychology professor Sherry Turkle wrote in the New York Times in 2012. "To get these, we ask one another simpler questions; we dumb down our communications, even on the most important matters." Turkle examines a very real issue associated with social media. Social Media has continued to integrate itself into our daily lives since this study was released. This change in depth is obvious when simply observing a single conversation. Social media isolates people and weakens their ability to communicate properly in any kind of conversation. 

Furthermore, low self-esteem and other emotional struggles are incredibly common side-effects of using social media. This can be seen when, “Scholars who study social identity theory have long identified the innate need of human beings to belong to groups, allowing them to identify themselves as insiders rather than outsiders while developing a strong sense of self. Scholars have reported contradictory findings when examining the correlation between self-esteem and social media use. Excessive time on social media has been shown to increase incidences of low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, loneliness, eating disorders, somatic complaints, and cyber victimization.” Humans' innate need for belonging affects the way we interact with our world, society, and ourselves. Social media can allow people to feel as if they belong. But as it allows that for some individuals it’s causing emotional turmoil for others. As it was previously mentioned in the case of social media, it's about weighing out the effects. And to say a possible sense of belonging outweighs the loss of someone's inner peace is frankly incorrect. 

A side effect less talked about social media is desensitizing people to harmful images someone should normally be emotionally affected by or is making people too sensitive to difficult images. For instance, “The effects fall into three categories, '' says Murray. There's a kind of imitation effect, where we seem to learn by example how to behave in certain situations. There's desensitization, which means we become less shocked and more tolerant of violence. Finally, there is the "mean world" effect, where people feel more vulnerable after seeing images of bad situations.” On just Facebook alone there are more than 300 million posts a day. Within these posts, there are many sensitive or difficult images that many people see. People will be affected, it's in our very nature, but if it’s affecting the way we function, alarms must be raised. 

Social media is increasing the number of eating disorders or disordered eating recorded in teenagers. For one, “A separate study published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed academic journal, found positive correlations between young women's use of Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat and eating disorders.” Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are incredibly popular apps. In all of these apps, experts are noting something very alarming. Seeing an onset of the most deadly mental illness. What’s so difficult about social media is the ability to hide behind its not-so-physical effects. However, with eating disorders, the illness quickly becomes physical and is incredibly dangerous, especially for girls in their developmental years. As a teenage girl myself, this is difficult to hear. My peers are being affected by this statistic and now struggle with eating disorders or some form of disordered eating. Something must be done, for all of us. 

Finally, many people are seeing an unhealthy attachment to the use of social media. “In 2013, a research team at the University of Winchester in England released the findings of a study in which they asked a group of active social media users to refrain from Facebook and Twitter for four weeks. The subjects described dire results. "[I] felt alone and cut off from the world…" Many see this as the most alarming effect of social media. It’s most definitely good that social media can be a form of community. Yet in exchange, it becomes the only form of communication, which quickly becomes frightening. 

In the case of the positive effects of social media, there are some compelling arguments. One example. “Social media has made it easier for individuals to keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues, and provides a novel forum for people to express themselves and spread ideas.” Social media does create a form of community, that isn’t something you could argue against. It’s simply a fundamental fact. It creates a form of community in almost every instance, like socialization and self-expression. With all things considered, there is an incredibly high amount of people using social media at any given time. It’s about weighing each side out. And in every instance, the negative outweighs the positive. Social media allows people to have a sense of belonging but in turn, increases the likelihood of many mental issues and other underlying problems. Belonging does not outweigh losing yourself in a social network. As well as becoming dangerously attached to social media, a commonly seen side effect. 

Social media creates more harm than good. Users need to become much more analytical in their use. Social media has implemented itself strongly in our daily lives and overall society. It doesn’t only create a dangerous obsession but can be the onset of many other harmful side effects. For some social media can simply be a tool for self-expression as well as a form of communication. That in itself is dangerous as we are becoming more detached from the way we are naturally meant to interact. Yet for most, it’s a dangerous battlefield. Our society as a whole has allowed social media to become the place it is. The goal isn’t for it to become completely disregarded but not to be silent any longer as the consumer. If we continue to stay silent we are equally to blame.