Social Media: Benefits, Risks, and Effects on Society

What Is Social Media?

Technically speaking, social media is a platform on which users can create and post content and interact with other users through means such as text, audio, video, and images. It can be seen as an online version of community life — or as a town hall (as Twitter is often called) — where people can share, interact, debate, or collaborate. Yet socially speaking, social media is very often a kind of digital shrine to the self. Each user creates a profile and gathers followers, posts personal thoughts or beliefs, and tries to get others to respond or pay attention, give approval, or spark a reaction. It is a way for people around the world to say, "Hey, everybody — look at me!"

And that is why, for some, when no one looks or pays attention, severe depression can follow. Social media has become a means of personal validation, and if that validation is not forthcoming — by way of likes, re-posts, follows, and so on — users can become despondent, withdrawn, and isolated, finding that their lives have no meaning in the context of the hyper-connected digital world (De Choudhury et al., 2013).

The Negative Effects of Social Media

A significant drawback of this form of communication and social networking is that it can lead to increased levels of narcissism and can become an avenue for digital addiction (Andreassen et al., 2017). As people become more dependent on and addicted to their devices and social media, they can forget how to connect and live in the real world, becoming socially isolated — no matter how digitally connected they are — and unable to form meaningful relationships such as families, partnerships, and long-lasting bonds.

Another drawback of social media is that users can become easily exposed to harmful ideas, content that can corrupt their morals, and dangerous opinions. For instance, social media is one means by which people can be radicalized: content can be posted to encourage extremist views, ramp up emotions, and motivate people toward action. In addition, social media can pose a risk to one's career. As has been shown time and time again, something posted on social media years in the past can return to haunt its author — a joke, or a remark now deemed insensitive and offensive, can be enough to get someone canceled, fired, and ostracized from real society (Velasco, 2020). Cancel culture has destroyed lives, and social media has often been the place where cancellation begins.

The Positive Aspects of Social Media

That said, social media is not all bad — there are genuine benefits worth acknowledging. Among the positive aspects is the fact that it allows for increased connectivity and collaboration among people. Users are able to make new friends and acquaintances through social media. Through social media, people can quickly spread messages, share ideas, and create connections with others from around the world in ways that were previously impossible. Information that once took days to unfold can now spread in seconds.

Moreover, social media has democratized news: citizen journalism is more prevalent today than ever before. People now have the means to investigate, communicate, and publish facts as they uncover them, without being beholden to advertisers or large media companies the way mainstream outlets are. In other words, social media has opened the door to technological citizenship and a new form of agency in the free speech arena. Of course, not everyone views this as a positive development: those who hold authoritarian beliefs tend to want to restrict free speech and permit only views that conform to their own position. In this sense, social media has brought about a direct conflict between democratic values and authoritarian pathways to power.

Conclusion

In conclusion, social media presents both positive and negative qualities, and it is up to the individual user to understand the benefits of social media platforms as well as the risks. The more informed, disciplined, mature, and self-aware users are, the less likely they may be to be harmed. Young users may need guidance and oversight — but even older users can find that all their free time is consumed by social media. Ultimately, awareness of both the promise and the peril of these platforms is the first step toward using them responsibly.

References

Andreassen, C. S., Pallesen, S., & Griffiths, M. D. (2017). The relationship between addictive use of social media, narcissism, and self-esteem: Findings from a large national survey. Addictive Behaviors, 64, 287–293.

De Choudhury, M., Gamon, M., Counts, S., & Horvitz, E. (2013). Predicting depression via social media. In Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 128–137).

Velasco, J. C. (2020). You are cancelled: Virtual collective consciousness and the emergence of cancel culture as ideological purging. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 12(5), 48–68.