Social Media plays a big role
in our daily lives. The first thing we do when we wake up in the morning is
checking our phone for the newest events in the world, check Facebook for the
most recent news from our friends and family, scroll through Instagram's
amazing pictures and add to our Snapchat story that we are now awake. We are
constantly online, documenting every part of our lives and the last thing we do
before bed is to check all the social media accounts again as if we haven't
been on our phones the whole day.
Does it really help us in any
way? With social media come a lot of pros and cons.
For example, it can help people
who are introverted, shy or suffer from social anxiety connect with others
through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and even YouTube. Not having to go out in
order to find friends is a great advantage for people who feel highly anxious
even at the thought of it.
It's no secret that a lot of
big YouTubers started their channels as a way to deal with depression. Look at
Lilly Singh, also known as Superwoman, who is one of the richest and most
popular YouTubers with thirteen million subscribers.
The advantages of having a lot
of followers on your social media accounts are countless. One of them is that
you can start and/or grow your own business from it. For example, a lot of
bookstagram accounts (Instagram for books) use their following to open their
own shops for candles, cosmetics and subscription boxes with bookish themes, a
lot of people get sponsored by publishing houses to just share a photo of a
book they got sent. The same goes for fashion and food accounts.
In other words, some people
make a lot of money from showing off their hobbies, they receive a lot of love
and support which motivates them to expand their platforms even more.
Look at all of the famous
YouTubers such a Logan Paul, Pewdiepie and Liza Koshy - they are all
multimillionaires thanks to social media.
Another advantage of social
media is that we can stay in touch with relatives and friends who live far away
from us and the only thing we would need is a good Internet connection.
One more amazing part of social
media is that we can always stay up to date with the latest news no matter if
we have missed the morning or night news on the TV, our friends and family on
Facebook would probably share them if it is something scandalous enough, it
would be all over Twitter in seconds.
These are only some of the pros
of course and bearing in mind all that social media do for us, one can conclude
that it really improves our lives.
However, it also comes with just
as many disadvantages.
Social media is a great way to
promote one's business but it also takes a lot of time. Sometimes we have to spend more time on
social media to attract and appeal to new audiences than actually do our job.
It also isn't a one-time thing, it's a long-term relationship.
Additionally, there is the
issue of cyberbullying. Social media
can help one deal with their mental illness but it can also cause one as well.
There are people all over the Internet who take pleasure in insulting others
online, not taking into consideration that behind the screen of a phone,
computer, laptop or a tablet is sitting a real human being who also has
feelings and can be hurt. What's worse is that sometimes people with depression
and anxiety get cyberbullied as well which could lead to self-harm or even worse-
ending their own lives.
Anonymity is a blessing and a
curse. You can hide behind different nicknames on social media and you can
allow yourself to say everything you cannot while being yourself.
Unfortunately, a lot of people use this opportunity to throw obscenities at
present and future successful people.
What is more, with social media
and the excessive use of Photoshop, more and more people feel pressured to be
something impossible because all they see all over the Internet are extremely
photoshopped pictures of various models. This, in turn, has made the beauty
standards impossible to be achieved by normal people who have regular
nine-to-five jobs or go to school and cannot dedicate three hours to the gym
every day. Even though so many of us know that these pictures are photoshopped
and edited, that they are taken from a specific angle, some people still
believe them and try to be like them.
Trying to live up to the
unrealistic beauty standards have caused so many young and middle-aged people
mental health issues and eating disorders which then scar them for life.
Social media is a great
invention that comes with a lot of advantages and disadvantages. It can help us
deal with our daily struggles by escaping reality but it can also cause us even
more problems. We know what we are getting ourselves into from the beginning,
we know that we will get addicted to all of these various platforms because
social media give us the chance to be whoever we want from the comfort of our
own homes. We can connect with people, create content, found a business and all
of that while sitting on a chair at home or in a café. Even though we come
across cyberbullies from time to time we never give up on social media because
it is a part of our lives and as many as the cons are, the pros are far more
appealing and at the end of they, despite all the negativity, social media
does improve our lives.
