Social media a good thing or a bad thing? That is the most frequently asked question today. Well, there are always two sides of everything; it depends on your perspective on how you perceive it. The same goes for social media, most people admire it as a revolutionary invention and some seem to take it as a negative impact on society.
Positive Effects:
Friends and Relations Social networks started as a place to connect with your friends in an easy and convenient way. Truly, many of you might have found your old pals from school or college who were out of touch because of one reason or other, well I would say I have and I thank social networks for this.
Reducing Communication Barriers With social networks we can communicate our thoughts and perceptions over different topics with many audiences, and raise our voice. The sharing feature available on the social networks makes your opinion about any topic reach a huge number of people (even to those who are not on your friends list)
Opportunities for Businesses Social networks have become a crucial part of many of us. We don’t even notice this, but as soon as we open our desktops or laptops to access the web, we subconsciously open our favorite social network just to see about the updates received.
Negative Effects:
Leads to Addiction Many studies have shown that the extensive use of social media can actually cause addiction to the users.
Lead to Isolation Extreme usage of social media has reduced the level of human interaction. Because of social networks, the interaction with other people has become effortless and people have isolated their lives behind their online identities.
Affecting Productivity Mostly businesses use social media to find and communicate with clients. But it is a great distraction to employees, who may show more interest in what their friends are posting than in their work tasks.
Ultimately, whether social media is “good” or “bad”/ “healthy” or “unhealthy” for a person’s mental health and well-being is directly related to how they are used (or abused), by whom, and by who is passing judgment. Key to enjoying the benefits while avoiding the problems is to use these powerful tools sensibly, constructively, and in moderation. Like food, which we truly can’t live without, the right choices in the right amounts keep people healthy and satisfied, while poor choices and excess consumption can lead to significant, potentially life-threatening health conditions.