Social media is such a huge part of today’s society. We use social media to do so many things and it can be beneficial in so many different ways. Social media makes our lives easier and helps us connect with others. Although it is helpful, it can also cause some problems. Since social media makes our lives easier, it is easy for us to hide behind a screen and avoid owning up to our actions. It has the ability to make us anonymous. I love social media every once in a while, but I’ve also learned to hate it and here’s why.
Starting off, social media can make it easy for us to meet new people. Just look at apps like Instagram and TikTok. You have the ability to meet new people with just one click of a button. I actually met one of my best friends through Instagram (hi Anna!). By scrolling through your feed or “for you” page, you can see pictures and videos from strangers all over the world and are able to connect with them directly. Although this is good and allows you to branch out and meet others, it can also lead to some questionable encounters. We’ve all heard about some pretty scary stories in the news or online that include social media mishaps or sharing too much information. Although social media makes some things easy, it almost makes the questionable things TOO easy.
Next, I think it’s important to acknowledge shaming and bullying on social media. I’ve seen so many instances where people will bully others on social media because they can. They have the ability to hide behind a screen and bully others without being bullied back. This is one of the reasons I’ve grown frustrated with social media. This hasn’t directly happened to me yet, but I’ve noticed the rude and hurtful comments while scrolling through TikTok videos. The same thing goes with shaming. Since social media is so public, people feel like they have the right to comment on other people’s bodies and know everything about them. This is another reason why I’ve grown frustrated with social media. It’s exhausting to see people commenting disgusting and inappropriate things (and sometimes, getting away with it) without even knowing the person behind the screen.
Lastly, social media can make it easier to compare yourself to others. Like I mentioned above, social media allows us to see some amazing content created by others! But with this comes the potential to compare yourself to others. It’s happened too many times where I will see posts by others and immediately say to myself, “why don’t I look like that?” Questioning myself all the time has become incredibly exhausting and it’s gotten to the point where I find it more beneficial to just stay off social media. I’ve also seen instances on social media where some younger people change themselves to fit the beauty standard that they see on there. The beauty standard on social media is very narrow-minded and not representative of our population at all, which is why it can be exhausting to stay on it.
All in all, I love social media because it allows us to connect with others and it makes it easier to meet new people. But at the same time, social media can be quite draining and have some negative effects on mental health in the long run. After being on social media for years, I’ve grown to limit my time on my phone so that I have more time to spend in the real world.