Social Media:necessary or Toxic?

Introduction

“We can get an army of people through social media to bring about change” This quote by Eric Qualman show the power of unity and that there is no such thing which can’t be beaten if we band together. Bill Murray on the other hand believed, “Social media is training us to compare our lives instead of appreciating everything we have, no wonder every one is depressed these days” This quote is true in its own way. But it leads us to the question. Social Media: Necessary or Toxic?

Graphic edits : @melongator_comix

Why Social Media?

In order to understand why social media, we need to understand why a person joins social media. A regular person joins social media for many reasons such as to communicate with their friends/ relatives who live far away, increasing their self-confidence and self-awareness. As negative as it may sound people also join because of Peer Pressure and Fear of missing out. Either way they now have an account and they start exploring the platform. First, one would follow the ones who they know, try to make new friends and follow the ones who they look up to. Soon they start interacting with posts which grasp their attention or they simply are attracted to it. Using this data, the social media platform makes a profile of the person and using this profile the algorithm show the person similar posts they interacted with. Soon they are neck deep into social media, according to a research done in 2019 by GoodFirms.co, revealed that about 85% of people continue to use social media platforms. The reasons many people don’t leave social media are due to the platform Algorithm, which makes the content they watch feel relevant to what they were looking for, for communicating or staying in touch with friends and family and it is a major source of entertainment for many people.

Impacts on a regular person’s life

“I remember joining a new school in 9th grade, being the new kid, I approached a group of other students, we talked about regular stuff for a while, then one of them asked me if I had an Instagram account. I hesitantly replied that I did not. I felt as if they were no longer interested in me and were looking down at me. I went home and under peer pressure made an Instagram account. The next day I went and told them about it. They suddenly gained interest in me again. I started wondering to myself “Is this what you require to be accepted by the others? Is this what we have to adapt to?”

In the above paragraph the person tried to explain to us that in the present, social media has become a major part of our daily lives. A survey held in 2019 revealed that more than 50% of the people who use social media use it more than an hour a day. Social media takes a huge chunk of time in a regular person’s day.

The new generation news platform

During the early 19th century when there were no radios or telephones, people wished for a faster way to receive or convey information. Great minds like Reginald Fessender, William Dubilier, Alexander Grahambell, etc invented the radio and telephone in 1840 & 1841. With this new technology talking to people and spreading information was faster and easier. But mankind as we know it, has a hunger to get better. They pushed the limits which created a string of events leading us to where we are today. the great minds are the reason why talking to a person who is on the other side of the country or the other side of the globe is just one tap away.

Many people believe that the mainstream media doesn’t cover all the information which is required to be known. many people were upset by the fact that such news was not covered and given the attention they required. When social media met such people, it was the birth of a new generation of news platform, where basically anyone could provide information and their voices were being heard. With nearly 2 billion people on social media platforms, the information which mainstream media did not cover now easily gets support online.

Meme Culture

Around 42% of the people use social media platforms for memes. When a person starts using social media, they come across a lot of negative news, memes are the positive counterpart of those. They are the source of humour in one’s life and one of the main reasons people uses social media. There are about 15 different types of memes! They go from depressive memes to wholesome memes. Social media would be very up to the point, negative and empty without meme culture. Wholesome memes light up the day for one and gives them little positivity to brighten their day. Here is a wholesome meme to light up your day. :)

Cyber Bullying

A research done by the I-safe foundation reveals that more than half of adolescents or teenagers have been bullied online. As sad as it may sound many people find it ‘funny’ to bully other people. Cyber bullying takes place in many different forms. Some of them are: -

· Spreading rumours online

· Posting Hurtful comments about others

· Sending threat messages to others

· Using information that the other person is sensitive about as a leverage to make them feel miserable

Cyber bullying takes place for some reasons like grudges the bully holds, for ‘fun’, etc. What the bully doesn’t realise is that cyberbullying is a double-edged sword. It not only hurts the victim but effects the bully in a way far worse than that.

Cyber bullying has a very negative impact on adolescents and teens. It can lead to anxiety, depression and in the worst-case scenario, suicide. As the saying goes, “once something joins the internet it never leaves” it hurts the victim for a long term. The very sad part is that only 1 in the 10 teenagers inform adults about cyber bullying and only 1 out of 5 bullies get caught. But it is wrong to think that the other bullies are safe, as a matter of fact, It takes one report of the issue to open the cyber police.

To summarise:

· A person joins social media for many reasons such as to gain self-confidence and gain self-awareness on the positive side where as some people join for negative reasons such as Peer pressure and Fear of missing out.

· It takes up a huge proportion of a person’s time when they start using it on a daily basis.

· Meme culture is required because it adds humour to people’s lives.