As millennials, the use of FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter, Pintrest and other social media platforms has become the norm. But like anything useful and convenient, there are also disadvantages to social media. The two sided argument for social medias pro’s and con’s list has been widely disputed and I am here to hash it out in a moral sense, including ethical implications.
There are several obvious reasons that social media is good, known as the PRO list. It can help small businesses and individuals reach a larger population, which is useful in advertising or discussing other important issues. It fosters great connection with people around the world and has helped start some amazing new campaigns and movements. So much positivity and love can be spread through social media and relationships can be formed with people you otherwise may have never met. It is also an outlet for self-expression, which is an enormous advantage in this generation.
While social media has positive attributes, it also has negative ones, also known as the CON list. One disadvantage to social media is that is a huge distraction to the real world. It is very easy to get sucked in to scrolling through posts of people that you may not even know. Sometimes this can lead to an unhealthy way of viewing oneself. Comparing yourself to others looks, lives, or accomplishments are a very negative pattern that can cause a great deal of pain to your emotional state and self-love. Addiction to social media can also be a problem. Many times people are incapable of setting time limits for themselves and adhering to them. And we have all witnessed some form of bullying/hatefulness on social media. This creates negativity for the person sending and receiving the hatefulness.
Challenge: this summer, challenge yourself to keep your eyes off of your phone and on the world. As college students it is easy to take a break from studying and browse through Instagram or FaceBook. Then, an hour goes by before we even realize that what we’re looking at is really not interesting. We have conditioned ourselves to always check to see if we got a “like” on our most recent post, or a comment on our feed. That hour that was spent in the screen could have been used in a much more valuable way. You could take a walk, paint your nails, get a light snack, read a passage from a non-scholarly book, or call your mom to catch up. Challenge yourself to not react immediately every time your phone buzzes. Condition yourself to stay off social media as much as possible. Do these things and I guarantee you will find things out about yourself and the people or world around you that you didn’t know before. Take back the power to live your life not the virtual ones people create online. Open your eyes and experience the real world. The world which gives you life.