Problems with Social Media

I honestly don't remember how I stumbled on the idea for this blog post. But no matter where I found it or how I found it, the topic of social media and problems it causes is something that needs to be talked about. Especially because of how it affects our lives every day. Like with my post 'How Do You Show Love?' I turned to social media and asked the question "What are 5 problems with Social Media?" And these are the answers that I got back along with my responses to them.

Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash

“People can be so mean…” – Unfortunately, this is something that happens online and offline. While it might not seem effective, whether it is a slow progression or not at all, we can do our best to combat meanness by being kind to others and showing them respect as people and with a positive attitude. 

“False Information” – This is something is greatly perpetuated by social media and the internet, whether it is through people or the media sharing it. Any and all false information can harm people. There are many examples of stories with false information in them all over the place. 

“Comparison” & “People compare themselves to others” – Sadly this is something that people have been dealing with for a long time. And it is something that has a strong tendency to be harmful. This is because we are constantly seeing pictures of actors and actresses being shown on screens in movies, TV shows, etc. and we are trained into thinking that we have to look like them in order to be happy. But we don’t need to starve ourselves in order to look like someone else. While it might seem a bit cliche to say this, we can be great, if not better, just the way that we are. Because every single one of us is different from the person next to us and we were made to be unique and not a carbon copy of someone else.

“A major distraction” – This is something that I see going on in my own life and in the world in general. We all struggle with this on a daily basis and it can be hard to break the cycle because of how ingrained social media has become on the internet. In order to break the habit of social media being such a large distraction is by finding ways to be creative and cut back on how much time you spend on social media and the internet in general. 

“Altered Reality” – Someone that I follow on Instagram said this a few weeks ago in the description of a video she shared on her account. “Behind every picture of a clean house is someone running around making it that way!” There was more after that, but I just wanted to share that sentence in particular because of how true and accurate it is. Because we are always posting about how our lives are perfect, etc. But it isn’t always and we all have a tendency to make life sound or look better than it is at times.

“Bad stuff is readily available” – I 100% agree with this statement. Because of how easily accessible everything is on the internet and through social media, we don’t know what we are getting into if we click on a link to an article or website that someone shared. And it is also easy to cover up our tracks if we knowingly look up something that we know is wrong but do it anyhow. 

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“Anonymity, Lying, Faking, Deceiving, Exploiting” – These are all ways that people hide what they are doing on social media and think that it is okay to do. When in reality it is something that harms many people. Changing passwords for social media accounts or the password for their phone is another way people lie and hide what they are doing. With exploitation, people are using social media to get things for their own benefit no matter what the cost and without thinking about the feelings and needs of the people around them. Nothing good ever comes from people doing these things. 

“Creating fake relationships” – While I don’t know or understand why people insist on doing this to themselves or the people around them, I do know that this can cause terrible and disastrous results at the end for the people doing it as well as the people around them. 

“Materialism” – This is a trap that people fall into quite often because we are surrounded by ads on social media, on TV, on billboards as well as in magazines. When it comes to the ads on social media, all we have to do is talk about different things and our phones and other electronics can and do listen in on the conversations and then start showing us ads related to what was being discussed. I have seen this happen on numerous occasions in my own house and my family and I all find it a bit disturbing as well as annoying. It is because of these ads and social media that we fall into the trap of materialism because we are trained to think that we need to have something that is shown on the screen. But in reality, we might not need it and it will only end up taking up space before it is eventually replaced with something else or is tossed in the trash.

“Not enough restriction on hate posts” – Unfortunately as human beings, there will always be something that we hate or don’t like. While restricting how hate posts are written and shown on social media might work for a while, it won’t fix the problem of people letting their hate on the people around them. 

  

“No one respects another's opinion” – This is something that we see on a daily basis. With social media, and easy access to a lot of different topics it is very easy to lose focus on what is important and because we are getting pulled down a rabbit hole of hate and angry words because someone doesn’t like the opinions of someone else. It is okay to have differing opinions and not get into an argument/heated discussion over it. I know that this might be an unpopular opinion (word choice was intentional), but I think we need to start making a change in how we react and respond to other people’s opinions. While I do my best to pay attention and listen to what other people are saying on different topics, I sometimes struggle with staying focused on what is being said. This is partly because the topic of conversation can change rather quickly and if you aren't paying attention, then you can get lost and not understand where the conversation is going. But I know that I can change how I respond to that by putting in more of an effort to respect the other person’s time and as well as the efforts that they are putting into sharing their opinions, even if I might not agree with that. 

Photo by Merakist on Unsplash

“Unrealistic expectations and judging everyone for not being trendy” – YESSSSSS!!!!! This one has a huge impact on people. Especially because a lot of times pictures and things are heavily edited before they are shared. And these pictures show a lot of unrealistic images that people want to look like. In my last semester of college, I took an Intro to Photoshop class and during one class the teacher showed us a video of someone heavily editing a picture using Photoshop just so we could get an idea of how much time is spent creating pictures that are in magazines, etc. Along with seeing unrealistic expectations on a regular basis, we are also bombarded with people being judged for doing things that aren’t trendy. While this might be an unpopular opinion with some people, I think that it is okay to go against the flow and ignore those who are judging. Because we are all meant to be different and not be the same.

“Influencers are actually a bad representation of the youth. Some are all about living life with fun and fancy expensive stuff. Which is not a healthy lifestyle.” – There are many things now that can lead to lifestyles that aren’t healthy. And I think that is partly because as a society we keep getting told that we need certain items in our lives to make us happy/whole. But that isn’t the case. Because the things that we are being told that we need sometimes aren’t what we actually need. There are also two sides to everything and what might work for one person’s needs might not work for another person. It is a good thing to want to have fun now and then in life, but it is when we start wanting the things that are more expensive and fancy that it becomes unhealthy.

“Trends. Not the good ones obviously, but when you do something only for people to see you doing it. Examples of this are when someone dies and suddenly everyone is sad and 'shows respect.' When in reality they had never heard about the person before.” – Because of how common it is for people to have one or more phones/tablets/etc., trends often spread quickly because someone uploads a video to social media and people start to copy it because they think it’s cool. While there are some trends that are better than others, we need to remember that trends, no matter how good or bad they are, will still be around because of people sharing them on the internet and social media. And these trends, depending on what it is, come with consequences that can seriously harm one or more people in the process. Just because something is popular and becomes a trend doesn’t mean that everyone has to follow it.