Social Media: A Blessing or a Curse?

It’s late at night and you are trying to finish an assignment you need to do when you hear a notification from your phone. You check it out, telling yourself you’ll return to work as soon as you see what it is. Upon opening your phone, you’re met with a meme compilation on YouTube. After finding the video entertaining, you instinctively scroll down to watch another one. Before you know it, an hour has passed and your assignment lays untouched beside you. This was the exact case for me but with my computer. This is only one of many ways social media can negatively affect you. YouTube isn’t the only culprit in social media’s negative impacts – popular platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat can be just as distracting and harmful. 

 

What is Social Media?

Social media is a form of mass media that outlines digital technology used to socialize, share ideas, entertain, and create content for others to see. People can join online communities, express ideas in forums, or simply comment on a post they like. Social media has integrated itself into our daily lives whether we know it or not. Watching a video on YouTube Shorts or scrolling through comments in a blog are both means of social media. After the rise of social media in the early 2000s, it has been and will continue to be a major part of media and the internet.

 

What is the Appeal?

Becoming extremely popular among teens and young adults, a study conducted at the Pew Research Center in 2023 found that 63% of teens ages 13 – 17 use TikTok, 60% use Snapchat, and a whopping 93% use YouTube. This absurdly high popularity begs the question: Why is social media so addictive? Well, the attention received from liked posts, comments, and constant notifications releases dopamine in the brain, making you happy and more inclined to use the platforms more and more. This is one reason scrolling on apps like TikTok makes an hour fly by instantly.

 

Effects of Social Media

The positive benefits of social media encompass online interconnectedness, self-expression, and accessible communication with others, which can explain why teens use it frequently. However, there are numerous downsides to this immersive online world that some argue outweigh the positives. Social media lowers your attention span since your brain keeps jumping between fast-paced videos, posts, and comments. As a result, activities such as reading become harder to focus on for long periods when compared to the fun of the media. Worsened mental health is also a common result of social media use through increased social anxiety, depression, and loneliness. These negative impacts combined with social media’s addictive nature lead to a vicious cycle; the negative impacts continue to spiral and the addiction just gets worse.

 

Minimizing Media Use

So, what can we do to minimize social media use? For some, deleting these online platforms altogether works wonders in improving daily life. However, many struggle to quit completely and it makes sense too. We feel like we are cut off from the media, we are missing out, and the fun that social media brings will be lost. So instead of quitting social media, there are plenty of ways to create a balance between social media and real life. Keeping yourself busy is an exceptional way of doing that. When you put yourself out there and find more activities to do, you will automatically use social media less while being more productive. Another way is by keeping your phone away from you when you can – especially at night. You will resist the social media temptation and keep your mind clear to do other fun activities.

 

Conclusion

With the rise and popularity of social media, we end up on our phones mindlessly scrolling for hours each day. The short-term fun and happiness gained follow inevitable addiction, negative mental health, and limited hours wasted. Of course, countless other reasons could scare you into deleting social media temporarily, but real change comes from staying self-disciplined and persistent. Make a small effort each day to minimize your media use and you will see instantaneous benefits to your health, mood, and productivity.

 

References:

1. 6 tips to help take control of your social media use and improve well-being. (2022, February 11). American Psychiatric Association. https://www.psychiatry.org:443/news-room/apa-blogs/tips-to-take-control-of-your-social-media-use
2. Gottfried, M. A., Michelle Faverio and Jeffrey. (2023). Teens, social media and technology 2023. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2023/12/11/teens-social-media-and-technology-2023/
3. Hana Frenette. (n.d.). How social media affects your brain [Neuline Health]. Retrieved August 23, 2024, from https://neulinehealth.com/how-social-media-affects-your-brain/
4. Ortiz-Ospina, E., & Roser, M. (2019, September 18). The rise of social media. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-media
5. Social media’s impact on our mental health and tips to use it safely. (2024, May 10). UC Davis Health. https://health.ucdavis.edu/blog/cultivating-health/social-medias-impact-our-mental-health-and-tips-to-use-it-safely/2024/05