Social Media Negative Side Effects

The world is interconnected with technology that breaks the barriers of oceans and continents. The internet provided a new basis for communication and new ways for people to interact, with social media as the platform for it. Social media has an impact on a global scale, as it allows different continents to communicate with each other in just seconds. It allows people to connect and be social when they are not able to see each other in person. The impact of social media ranges from impacting people medically to economically, from businesses to helping third world cities, and how demographics is affecting who uses it. Social media is helpful and useful in the ways it allows communication, but can have harmful side effects and impacts. The

For many who use social media, it is a way to hear positive feedback about their lives. It can help with self-esteem and positivity with oneself. A person would want their post to be creditable, so they would know it was good, giving them that positive feedback. A research team in Germany “found that individuals who gained positive feedback about themselves on Facebook showed stronger activity in the nucleus accumbens of the brain-a region associated with ‘reward processing’ (Whiteman Honor)”. This positivity can be seen as a negative side-effect as many use it as a way for constantly gain or “fish” for compliments. Social media also provides an outlet for people to see what positive things people have to say about them. But, this can also lead to social media addiction as people use it as a relief to boredom. “The main reasons we use social media is for self- distraction and boredom relief (Whiteman Honor)”. The negative side is shown that people can become addicted to the thing that makes them feel better. But the addiction, can lead to something more, and checking it constantly could be a form of paranoia. “From these studies, it appears that, any users who are addicted to Facebook use the site as a way of gaining attention and boosting their self-esteem (Whiteman Honor)”. Also, what comes with posting on social media, is a criterion of what you should post, and

Social media provides a way to better develop social skills and help them better communicate with each other. By “engaging in various forms of social media is a routine activity that research has shown the benefit children and adolescents by enhancing communication, social connection and even technical skills (Clarke-Pearson Kathleen, O’Keeffe Schurgin Gwenn)”. It benefits to use social media because as shown it helps with social skills and being able to communicate with others and help with technological skills. Teenagers seem to be constantly on their phones, and that is most likely because that is how this generation communicates with each other. With apps like Instagram, Kik, Facebook, and Snapchat, it allows them to stay connected with their friends. Since this is occurring, “a large part of this generation’s social and emotional development is occurring while on the internet and on cell phones (Clarke-Pearson Kathleen, O’Keeffe Schurgin Gwenn)”. But the use of social media by teens also gives rise to the problem of cyberbullying, which allows there to be bullying online and comments can be anonymous. Cyberbullying “is the most common online risk for all teens and is a peer-to-peer risk (Clarke-Pearson Kathleen, O’Keeffe Schurgin Gwenn)”. This can cause problems, such as, low self-esteem, problems with their self- image, and can be but not limited to things like “depression, anxiety,