Impact Of Social Media On Society Essay Example

Researchers have tracked down that an absence of social connection inhibits an individual’s wellbeing comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes per day or having an alcohol use disorder. Social media is contributing towards creating a mental health crisis among our society that is leading to more issues.Social media diminishes your awareness and connections of individuals and responsibilities in your day to day existence. With the norms that social media creates, it prompts self uncertainty and less self confidence. Lastly, these platforms also open you up to other people and their opinions, which may not generally be acceptable or civil.  Societies should be against social media platforms because they cause countless mental health issues that often lead to worse consequences , due to the isolation that they create.

Investing more time and energy in web-based media and supplanting face to face communications with online use will prompt the decrease of closeness and happiness you feel when doing the things you love with the individuals you care about. There is a book called Alone together by Sherry Turkle, it's on a study that asked parents and childrens their opinions on technology and social media. The study showed that social media has become an addiction on most families and the lack of family social interactions. Some children have in fact stated that they desired interaction and spending quality time together with their parents. This shows that the amount of time many people spend on social media is breaking bonds they have with the people around them. Social media is doing that by creating an isolation barrier, separating you from the people around you and your responsibilities. Social media webs are leading people into “another world” that consists of entertainment, fantasy, and a convenient place to talk to others that are not near you. This may all seem good but it is slowly pushing you away from the real world where you have responsibilities, stress and actual human interactions. For instance, substituting online interactions with human to human interactions are terrible for your mental health. You need in-person connections in order for your hormones that reduce stress to be triggered leading you to be happier and more positive. So if you substitute in-person to online, you won't get the happiness that communicating with others during human to human interactions will give you.This will lead to many mental health issues like depression, anxiety and loneliness. Having all these mental disorders puts you in a higher risk of developing suicidal thoughts or self harm. Many people have mental disorders because social media is substituting in-person interactions with online use and setting unrealistic expectations. 

Web-based media has the power of setting guidelines of social expectations. However, these expectations are essentially absurd for a large portion of the populace. These standards often lead to insecurities and negative self images. Self-discrepancy theory says the way we feel about ourselves depends on the gap between our 3 different self-representations (Higgins, 1987); Our actual self- how we really are, our ideal self-how we would like to be, and how we ought to be-how we think we should be in the society we live in. Social media contributes to an unrealistic ideal and ought self, making it difficult for individuals to accept their real self . Editing, tweaking, adding filters, and manipulating images are all ways  numerous web-based media clients use to present an impression of how they want to be perceived (the perfect selfies of their ideal self). Presently envision you are very insecure about your body, and you saw posts of individuals with altered unreasonable bodies. It would surely make you feel inadequate. This would make you self-conscious about your body and might actually cause mental illnesses like depression, anxiety and more. Which frequently adds to dietary problems or substance abuse disorders. After social media has promoted these unrealistic bodies, many people have started to harm their bodies by doing things like going on an unhealthy diet (over eating, not eating enough, etc.) or over working out just to have the same body as those shown all over the internet who are supposedly “the beauty standard”. But unrealistic expectations are not the only issue with being online, it also exposes you to offensive and hurtful comments made by others.

The decision of others to express their opinions and make fun of other individuals on social media can directly influence one's physiological state. Going online will expose you to other people and their disdain/negative comments. For instance, judgment of sexual preferences or orientation. According to Techjury.net, in 2021 42% of LGBTQ+ youth have experienced cyberbullying before and victims of cyberbullying are 1.9x more likely to commit suicide. As shown, these insights reveal a strong presence of hate speeches on social media sites. A large amount of teens have been cyberbullied and the suicide rate due to cyberbullying is pretty high meaning that bullying doesnt just harm ones mental health, it is capable of doing much worse. A lot of people may see social media as a compelling method to spread hatred towards others as they are simply sitting behind a screen so nobody knows what their identity is and they won't be held accountable with what they say. For the people who were just trying to express who they are online, receiving hate speech by another individual would likely not bother them much. However, when numerous individuals say negative speeches towards the people who are trying to express themselves, it would surely get into an individual's head. Persuading them to believe that what everyone is saying is true eventually leads them to start living off of other's approval. When people receive hate speeches it affects how they see themself and their self-esteem. This would seriously harm their emotional well-being and could prompt different diseases like eating disorders. Research has shown that even a small amount of negative brain activity can lead to a weakened immune system, making you more prone to health issues such as heart attack or a stroke. So even if this person thought about those negative comments for 5 minutes a day, that would already be sufficient to debilitate their immune system. This should be enough for society to be against social media as it is hurting our current generation by causing isolation and will continue to harm our future generations mindsets and self-esteem. 

Social media has consumed the minds of our current generations causing endless well-being issues to occur like your physiological state that eventually can harm your physical health.  Online media decreases your intimacy and consciousness of people and obligations in your everyday life. With the standards that online media makes, it prompts vulnerability and doesn't allow you to see one's self-worth and beauty. These social sites free you up to others and their hateful, judgmental comments.  In fact, according to Dr. Travis Bradberry (the cofounder of TalenSmart which  is the world’s leading provider of emotional intelligence tests and the coauthor of Emotional Intelligence 2.0.) negative attitudes also affect your intelligence and ability to think, so when using social media you should be careful due to the fact that social media is a dangerous place for your health as there are many things that can harm you and your psychological state including your intelligence, even if you aren't aware of it.