Social Media Problems

People today would be surprised to know that social media has not been around forever. In fact, even more surprising is the realization that people did not really even have or use cell phones almost twenty years ago, and in those days cell phones were only used for calling. We have come a long way. Now, the whole world is in the palm of our hands, or in our cars, or on our wrists. Possibly the greatest thing to come out of this drastic evolution is social media. Social media is where everyone can keep up with family, check in with friends, and share their big time experiences with the rest of the world. However, it has opened up many, many more doors than ever intended, both good and bad. Social media has ironically turned people less social, provided an easy outlet for people to bully and point out insecurities, but also has changed the way we receive important information and news.

Simon Hill explores how the internet and its continuous use can destroy a person’s attention span in his article "Is the Internet Destroying Your Attention Span? We Asked an Expert." Hill discovers from Dr. David Greenfield, founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University Of Connecticut School Of Medicine that “On a functional level people have a much higher degree of distractibility, when it comes to digital technology,” The concept by Dr. David Greenfield is enforced by a study by the British Bank Lloyds TBS the average attention span had fallen from 12 minutes in 1998 down to 5 minutes in 2008. Hill’s discovery’s show how the technological advances of social media

Social media is growing more and more every day and it's getting addicted to people. Whether they are working or stay at home. Also, people uses social media for businesses, advertisement, communication, etc. It's just a phrase that being around a lot, but at the same time many people do not actually know when and how to use it. It just a great inventions, even the world is circle with all different types of social media like Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Instagram, etc. There are a lot of people out there included medical staffs, students, professors, and lawyers who have concerns about social media. It just incorporates the online technology and methods to which people can share content, personal opinion, swap different information, and

“We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we do it.” (Erik Qualman) Social Media has made it easier to connect with people around the world. Social Media has the ability to be utilized for different purposes. Connecting with family and friends, raising money for Go Fund Me accounts, and even reading about news that’s happening around the world. When did something that was created to be a major technological advancement in our society, turn out to be an even larger problem? Although Social Media was created for a positive reason, it has become more problematic for our society due to cyberbullying.

Today, the term that many people know is social media. What people don’t know is when it was created and how it has evolved. Social media are websites and applications that allow many people across the world to create and share content or even get involved in social networking. According to the Article, “The History of Social Media: Social Networking Evolution” the birth of social media began in 1997 with a social media website called Six Degrees, then blogging and instant messaging were created thereafter. About one hundred million people became socially occupied on social media in the year 2000 (4). Many people were able to use the internet from their mobile device, computer, or other electronics. In 2004, Facebook was set for students only, but is now used by people all over the world (5). Today, social media has millions of platforms. Social media icons are seen everywhere and it’s unusual to see companies or stores without them (6). Social media has impacted many people since it was created, but some question if it has put either a negative or positive impact on society today.

Nowadays, social media is a big part of the American culture with approximately eighty-one percent of the US population using it(Edison Research). On average, people spend two hours a day on social media meaning the average American spends five years of their life on it. This in part has to do with the variety of platforms which equals more time on them. (Asano) The rise of social media began in the early 2000s with the start of Myspace and continues to grow. Today, we have various platforms including: Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and YouTube amongst the most popular. These platforms provide a new way for billions of people to connect, communicate , and inform themselves amongst others at any time of day. It’s a new form of interaction where now the most social person sits on their couch, smart phone in hand, all day. People tend to say being online is toxic because of cyber bullying, hackers, and fake news; however, due to the increased access of ties between people and information, social media has begun to influence social and political change in a positive way through its power of communication.

As defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, social media is: “forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content” (Merriam Webster’s online dictionary 2017). Social media is commonly used in today’s society. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have taken over, building a community with many active users. Social media is especially popular among adolescents. (Radovic et al.). Further, such sites as these allow for an easy way to communicate and stay updated on the latest trends. However, it comes with many problems as well. With all the time that is spent on social media, it can make people less concentrated on the ‘real world’, and the access to an abundance of information can lead to self-esteem issues. Therefore, social media has more negative aspects than positive for the younger generations in particular.

Premise 1: You have easy access to social media nowadays with it being on phones, laptops, and tablets makes it easy for people to access and get involved in things that may later lead to trouble.

My generation has grown up with technology in our hands since we were toddlers. We are dependent on technology, from Iphones, Laptops,tablets, ipods, even watches that keep us connected to a never ending supply of distant connection. Social media is the source of many problems in our society. One of the problems is the lack of communication in a relationship. One misconception about social media is that it has the ability to strengthen a relationship because you have another avenue of communication when in fact it is detrimental, due to lack of intimate interaction between two people. Social media not only takes away face to face interactions, but it leads to trust issues, cheating and a lack of confrontation.

Throughout the years, the dangers that social media hold have been becoming more apparent to the world. In the world today, it is not shocking to hear of

Social media is incredibly and increasingly prevalent within America’s modern culture. It is nearly impossible to avoid - television shows often depict characters using social media, large stores and little shops alike post signs with links to follow them on Instagram or Facebook, and even some churches are joining Instagram or Snapchat as a means to publicize their events. For my generation, while we can vaguely remember a time before technology and social media were so widespread, this is normal. For newer generations, imagining a time without the presence of dozens of social media platforms is difficult. Younger generations have had iPhones and iPads handed to them basically since birth, have grown up watching their parents and older siblings become more invested in their phones than in them, and have begun turning away from people and towards machines. Because children are growing up immersed in technology and social media, it can hardly be surprising that they turn to social media for approval and confirmation of their behaviors and lives in general. The dangers in this are youth feeling pressured to portray their lives dishonestly, becoming unknowingly addicted to social media, and fall victim to cyberbullying.

Social media has been around for some time now, being helpful to many people around the world. There are plenty of ways people use social media and there are many different sites to use. People rely on social media to stay current on day-to-day events, remain close to friends and family, meet new people, and even to avoid boredom on days that seem endless. Many people rely on it for information regarding current situations and to keep up with other people’s lives. It can come in many forms and can be used on a variety of gadgets like our phones, computers, laptops, tablets, and gaming consoles. It can include dating sites, social sites, and sites that gives updates on current news around the globe. Although it may seem beneficial for many, it can also lead to physical and psychological harm for the people who use it. Social Media is a dangerous, addicting artificial world that is causing physical, emotional, and psychological harm to people in our society.

Used by the majority of Americans, social media has become a prominent source of entertainment, education, and communication. Social media is consistently at the fingertips of the average American, however, with this much exposure it has been shown to display negative effects, including of mental illness, addiction, low self-esteem and an outlet for bullying. Eventually, this can result in the downfall of social media

Social media reduces productivity. If a social media user spends one hour a day on social media every day, that time amounts to nine weeks per year (Booher). According to the University of Maryland, research was conducted and the results presented that 18 percent of users cannot go beyond “a few hours” without checking Facebook and 61 percent of users check their newsfeed at least “once a day.” A statistic states “Of iPhone users, 28 percent check their Twitter feed before they get out of bed in the morning.” The average American spends one quarter of their work day browsing social media for browsing social media for non-work related topics. 60 to 80 percent Americans admit they don’t use the Internet for anything necessary, but use it to kill time to be entertained. Also, numerous studies revealed that

Other than affecting morality, media also provokes danger to society. As our times modernize many people get to experience the ease of technology. One example is the accessible communication between the communities, like social networking sites. As most people, hundreds of millions of people are now active users of Facebook and Twitter. This medium definitely attracts danger to users by sharing of information, scams, and even cyber bullying. Given approval of this fact, a 2010 Consumer Reports article says that “25% of people using