What is social media good for от o brian says

Is Social Media Good or Bad

Social media has become a big part of society. According to a report done by Pew Internet & American Life Project, eighty-one percent of teens use social media sites. There are pros and cons to social media. The dark side of social media is cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is the modern way of bullying.It causes depression and anxiety which can lead to suicidal thoughts or suicide. Cyberbullying is the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature according to dictionary.com. Ditchthelabel.org, an international anti-bullying charity, estimates that around 5.43 million people in the UK have been struggling with cyberbullying, with 1.26 million people suffering extreme cyberbullying on a daily basis. These huge numbers are backed up by the fact that Childline has seen an 87% increase in calls concerning cyberbullying in the last three years. The same study finds that teen girls are more likely to be affected than boys (36.7% versus 30.5%), though around a third of all teens reported some kind of online harassment. Public Health England has found that social status impacts bullying, with teens from more affluent families more likely to be cyberbullied. As for where cyberbullying happens, an American study from the American Journal of Public Health suggests that the majority of cyberbullying occurs over Facebook and via text message.

Cyberbullying has ruined many lives. Cyberbullying on social media is linked to depression in teenagers, according to new research that analyzed multiple studies of the online phenomenon. Social media use is hugely common among teenagers, said Michele Hamm, a researcher in pediatrics at the University of Alberta, but the health effects of cyberbullying on social media sites is largely unknown. Both bullies and their victims are more likely to suffer from depression than youth who are not involved in bullying. This connection can be long-lasting; people who are bullied as children are more likely to suffer from depression as an adult than children not involved in bullying. Teens who commit suicide often suffer from depression. Experts hesitate to say that bullying is a direct cause of suicide, but it may be a factor in a teen’s depression. The Cyberbullying Research Center found that victims of cyber bullying were more likely to suffer from low self esteem and suicidal thoughts. They suggest further research needs to be done to see if low self esteem is a result of being cyber bullied or if it makes a person more likely to be a target of cyber bullying. A recent study by the US National Institutes of Health, reported by Reuters, found that victims of cyber bullying showed more signs of depression than other bullying victims. This may be because cyberbullying can be more relentless and more frightening or discouraging, especially if the bully is anonymous. Anxiety is also a huge factor when it comes cyberbullying.

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Cyber bullying can be tough to spot. Many young people who are being bullied don’t want to tell teachers or parents, perhaps because they feel ashamed or they worry about losing their computer privileges at home. Parents often tell their children to turn off the mobile phones or stay off the computer. Many parents don’t understand that the internet and mobile phone act as a social lifeline for teenagers to their peer group. Recently, there has been much media attention concerning this topic and its relationship to suicide. It is unknown whether other factors play a part, but cyberbullying is a contributing element in teen suicide. Many were affected by Sheniz Erkan suicide, a victim of cyberbullying who was sadly too afraid to speak up. Interestingly, a third of those who experience cyber bullying do not report it. If we are to succeed in preventing bullying, we need to break the climate of silence in which it thrives by empowering children and young people to speak out and seek help. cyber bullying can have deleterious effects on a child’s mental health. In particular, it can leave teenagers with low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, less interest in school, a deep sense of loneliness, self-harming and, in some cases, suicide.

Social media benefits

Despite the risks, social media can offer children valuable opportunities to develop skills and build a good digital footprint, see what other benefits it offers to help them get the best out of social media.

What’s on the page?

How social media can support young people

Although social media can present some risks, it’s important to understand what the benefits are to give your child the guidance they need to make the best out of their social media use. Below is a list of ways social media can be a source for good for children and young people.

Collaborative learning

Broaden connection and understanding of the world

Children can learn and appreciate different perspectives and worldviews to better understand the world around them and build up their knowledge on a range of topics. With so many ideas shared across a number of platforms, they can discover areas of interest and use the platforms in an educational capacity.

Digital media literacy

Develop communication and technical skills

As social media is now a part of everyday life, it is important for children and young people to learn how to communicate online to prepare them for future opportunities in the workplace and support them in interacting with friends and family.

Mental health and wellbeing

Removing boundaries to develop connections

Social media removes the boundaries of meeting and maintaining people and forming bonds beyond borders. For children who may have a disability or may not feel they can connect with others within their community, it can be a great way to connect with other people who share their ideas and interests.

Strengthen relationships

Having access to family members who may live miles apart of friends who have moved from a local area can help maintain relationships and allow them to stay in touch and share their lives with ease.

A place to seek support

It can open up opportunities to offer support to friends and family that may be experiencing a particular issue. On the flip side for some young people, it can be a place where they can seek support if they are going through something that they cannot talk to those close to them about.

Campaigning for social good

Social media can help young people raise awareness of a particular cause that they are interested in to have a real-world impact on effecting change where they want to see it.

Develop a positive digital footprint

Young people can also use their accounts as bespoke CVs to share their achievements, showcase their talents and build a positive online portfolio that can benefit them in later life.

Pros and Cons of Social Media

Multitasking has become a common theme in our lives. It’s a wonder how we manage it all.

We depend on our smartphones for work, school, our personal and social lives. When was the last time you left home without your phone and kept on going? The internet has become a significant part of our daily lives. So too has social media. And it is having an impact on today’s teens.

Social media usage

Back in 2005, when social media was still in its infancy, only about 5 percent of users in the United States were involved in social media. In 2019, that number grew to about 70 percent.

Like most things, using social media has its positives (the good), its cautionary tales (the bad), and dangers (the ugly) that lurk and impact the lives of many, but especially teens.

Pros: Why is social media good?

Social media and technology offer us greater convenience and connectivity:

Social media can be a good thing, but if teens ever feel uncomfortable about something they see or read on social, they should trust their own feelings and talk to someone – a parent, a teacher, or another trusted adult. Bullying, threats and cruelty on social media are all signs that the person doing those things needs help.

Cons: Why is social media bad?

Along with the good comes the bad. With all of its benefits, the nature of social media presents a range of potential issues.

Social media and bullying

“Bullying” means the use by one or more students of a written, verbal or electronic expression or a physical act or gesture or any combination thereof directed at a student that:

“Cyberbullying” means bullying through the use of technology or any electronic communication, which shall include, but not be limited to, any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, texting or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photo electronic or photo optical system, including, but not limited to, electronic mail, Internet communications, instant messages or facsimile communications.

Bullying statistics

Every 7 minutes a child is bullied. Unfortunately, intervention is rare, with an adult intervening in only four percent of cases, and a peer in 11 percent. An astonishing 85 percent of all cases of bullying are not addressed.

The following are just some statistics on how common bullying and cyberbullying have become: According to StopBullying.org:

Social media and suicide

Sadly, the cons of social media can take a toll on young minds. Suicide remains among the leading causes of death of children under age 14. In most cases, young people die from hanging.

What can parents do?

As parents, there are things we can do to improve our children’s lives online and in real life.

Technology has changed the way we live, work, and socialize. But it can’t replace parenting.

For more tips on parenting, visit the Growing section of our Lifespan Living health and wellness blog.

Is Social Media a Good Thing or a Bad Thing?

Back in 2012, Social Media Today published an article that asked the question: «Is social media a good thing or a bad thing?» Then, in 2015, the article was updated, asking the question: «Is social media bad for us?»

Both of these posts still get a high number of views each month, as people are still Googling, looking for the answer to «Is social media good or bad?»

I’m sure there are as many answers to this question, on both sides, as there are people using social media. Perhaps that number would even skew negative, if you also asked people not using social.

So what is the answer? Is social media basically good, or does it have a «negative impact on society», as the original post’s author Syed Noman Ali asked?

Here’s my answer: social media is what you make of it. Like so many other things in life, both online and off, you get what you put into it.

Positive Effects

Social media connects people

As Sarah Snow wrote in her updated post:

«People are more and more mobile, moving for jobs, living far from their families, so technology that helps bridge the social gap created by the modern economy is useful. We build and maintain relationships on social media.»

Social networks began as a means of connecting with friends. How many of us sought out old friends from high school, or even grammar school, and were able to reconnect?

Human beings are inherently social creatures. We need other people to truly thrive. Social media connects us with people we may never meet in person, yet we’re still able to develop as strong (and as I’ve found, many times even stronger) relationships with these people.

Social media gives everyone an equal voice

It has truly democratized media, and given everyone a medium through which to be heard.

Social media can revolutionize business

Whereas it used to be only the companies that were able to purchase ads getting their message out, now, any sized company can take the time to jump into a conversation on any social network.

Increased transparency

Consumers are also now more able to really see who they’re paying their money to

Consumer insight

Brands are also now able to tailor their products and services to what people really need and are looking for.

Social networking helps narrow the gap between a company and their current and/or potential consumers. The more a brand interacts with their consumers on social networks, the more they’re able to learn how to target consumers with the right products and services at their time of need.

More education

Social media can also provide access to educational opportunities previously not available.

You can learn how to do almost anything you seek via videos and ‘how-tos’ on the internet, changing the way we learn.

Real-time news updates

News content is now available much faster due to social media.

Negative Effects

Misinformation and fake news

There’s both real and «fake» information to be found via social content. People can find real news and they can find fake news, laid out as real.

Inevitably, there will always be people looking to capitalize on any media distribution method, which social media is, and there’ll be those who’ll believe anything they read and not look any further into finding out if what they’re reading is an internet hoax.

Reduced productivity

Social Media can have negative impacts on productivity, if people allow it. I know personally, that I’ve used the term «I just fell into a rabbit hole on (insert any social networking site) for hours, without even noticing».

People will use social media when they’re supposed to be doing other things, however this is nothing new, nor can it solely be blamed on social media. Before the internet, people still wasted time while at work.

If you hire a slacker, you’re going to get a slacker, whether you take their internet away or not.

Social media can be addictive

Studies have been conducted which show that people get the same dopamine high when someone likes one of their posts as an addict does from a hit of cocaine.

Just like an alcoholic that can’t start their day without a shot of alcohol, many people can’t get out of bed before checking Facebook.

As Snow wrote in her post:

«27% of consumers admit they check social networks as soon as they wake up, and 51% continue to log in periodically throughout the day. «

Definitely, this is a key area that needs to be considered and addressed. Some individuals will be more susceptible to such conditions than others, and hopefully we’re closer to reaching some level of understanding as to how these users can be helped, but it is a clear negative, and one that needs to be considered.

Cyber-bullying

Social media can also facilitate cyber-bullying, which can take disagreements to new levels, leaving little escape for victims.

This is true, scary and unfortunate. Whereas you used to have a problem with someone in person, today, that person’s able to gather people from anywhere in the world to join their cause or hatred against people or institutions. People seem to feel bolder and more apt to attack others when hiding behind their screens.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments what your experience has been like.

I used to think social media was a force for good. Now the evidence says I was wrong

More and more, it’s clear these platforms create divisions, exploit our insecurities and risk our health. They’re as bad as the tobacco industry

Illustration by Thomas Pullin

Illustration by Thomas Pullin

I used to think social media was essentially a force for good, whether it was to initiate the Arab spring of 2011, or simply as a useful tool for bringing together like-minded people to share videos of ninja cats. Having spent a lot of time thinking about mental health, I even saw social media’s much-maligned potential for anonymity as a good thing, helping people to open up about problems when they might not feel able to do so in that physical space we still quaintly call real life.

I also knew from my own experience that it could sometimes provide a happy distraction from the evil twins of anxiety and depression. I have made friends online. As an author, it’s also been a great way to test new ideas, and has taken storytelling from its castle in the sky back down to the metaphorical (now hashtag-heavy) campfire. As someone who often finds social situations mentally exhausting, social media seemed far more solution than problem.

Yes, I would occasionally feel that maybe staring at my Twitter feed near-continuously for seven hours wasn’t that healthy, especially when I was arguing with an army of Trump fans telling me to jump off a cliff. Yes, I’d see articles warning of the dangers of excessive internet use, but I dismissed these as traditional, reactionary takes. I saw social media naysayers as the first reviewers of Technicolor movies, who felt the colour distracted from the story, or were like the people who walked out on Bob Dylan at Newport folk festival for playing an electric guitar, or like those who warned that radio or TV or video games or miniskirts, or hip-hop or selfies or fidget spinners or whatever, would lead to the end of civilisation.

I remember a Daily Mail headline, “How using Facebook could raise your risk of cancer”, which made things even clearer: to be anti-social media was to be hysterically on the wrong side of history.

Then I started the research for a book I am writing on how the external world affects our mental health. I wanted to acknowledge the downsides of social media, but to argue that far from being a force for ill,it offers a safe place where the insanities of life elsewhere can be processed and articulated.

But the deeper into the research I went, the harder it was to sustain this argument. Besides the Daily Mail screeching about the dangers, other people – scientists, psychologists, tech insiders and internet users themselves – were highlighting ways in which social media use was damaging health.

Even the internet activist and former Google employee Wael Ghonim – one of the initiators of the Arab spring and one-time poster boy for internet-inspired revolution – who once saw social media as a social cure – now saw it as a negative force. In his eyes it went from being a place for crowdsourcing and sharing, during the initial wave of demonstrations against the Egyptian regime, to a fractious battleground full of “echo chambers” and “hate speech”: “The same tool that united us to topple dictators eventually tore us apart.” Ghonim saw social media polarising people into angry opposing camps – army supporters and Islamists – leaving centrists such as himself stuck in the middle, powerless.

And this isn’t just politics. It’s health too. A survey conducted by the Royal Society of Public Health asked 1,500 young people to keep track of their moods while on the five most popular social media sites. Instagram and Snapchat came out worst, often inspiring feelings of inadequacy, anxiety and self-loathing. And according to another survey carried out by the youth charity Plan International UK, half of girls and two-fifths of boys have been the victims of online bullying.

The evidence is growing that social media can be a health risk, particularly for young people who now have all the normal pressures of youth (fitting in, looking good, being popular) being exploited by the multibillion-dollar companies that own the platforms they spend much of their lives on.

Kurt Vonnegut said: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful who we pretend to be.” This seems especially true now we have reached a new stage of marketing where we are not just consumers, but also the thing consumed. If you have friends you only ever talk to on Facebook, your entire relationship with them is framed by commerce. When we willingly choose to become unpaid content providers, we commercialise ourselves. And we are encouraged to be obsessed with numbers (of followers, messages, comments, retweets, favourites), as if operating in a kind of friend economy, an emotional stock market where the stock is ourselves and where we are encouraged to weigh our worth against others.

Of course, humans comparing themselves to others isn’t new. But when the others are every human on the internet, people end up comparing themselves – their looks, their relationships, their wealth, their lives – to the carefully filtered lives of people they would never meet in the real world – and feeling inadequate.

Abuse is another serious issue. In his devastating account of online entrepreneurs and their values, Move Fast and Break Things, Jonathan Taplin talks of social media’s “Colosseum culture” of throwing people to the lions. “Punishing strangers ought to be a risky endeavour,” he writes. “But the anonymity of the internet shields the person who punishes the stranger.”

To let companies shape and exploit and steal our lives, would be the ultra-conservative option

Reading first-hand accounts by people with bulimia and anorexia who are convinced that social media exacerbated or even triggered their illnesses, I began to realise something: this situation is not the equivalent of Bob Dylan’s electric guitar. It is closer to the tobacco or fast-food industries, where vested interests deny the existence of blatant problems that were not there before.

To ignore it, to let companies shape and exploit and steal our lives, would be the ultra-conservative option. The one that says free markets have their own morality. The one that is fine entrusting our future collective health to tech billionaires. The one that believes, totally, in free will; and that mental health problems are either not significant, or are entirely of the individual’s making.

We are traditionally far better at realising risks to physical health than to mental health, even when they are interrelated. If we can accept that our physical health can be shaped by society – by secondhand smoke or a bad diet – then we must accept that our mental health can be too. And as our social spaces increasingly become digital spaces, we need to look seriously and urgently at how these new, business-owned societies are affecting our minds. We must try to see how the rising mental health crisis may be related to the way people are living and interacting.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg says that “by giving people the power to share, we’re making the world more transparent”. But what we really need to do is make social media transparent.

Of course, we won’t stop using it – I certainly won’t – but precisely for that reason we need to know more about what it is doing to us. To our politics, to our health, to the future generation, and to the world around us. We need to ensure we are still the ones using the technology – and that the technology isn’t using us.

Matt Haig is the author of How to Stop Time