Why is social media bad? I hear you ask.
Social media is a big part of our society and culture right now and, as such, there are a lot of questions asked about it and a lot of research done in relation to it.
Much of this is research is still ongoing as, even though we might think that social media has been around forever, it really hasn’t.
The research done about social media tends to focus on its impacts and effects on us as human beings. It isn’t all bad, and some researchers really do try and focus on the positives that social media can bring to some people, but there is indeed a lot of work conducted and being conducted on how social media has negative effects and influences on us and our lives.
This blog is going to look into the central question of why is social media bad? By pulling together some of this research and some personal opinions and experience, to give a well-rounded view of how we see things.
Let’s jump into it.
Time
The first aspect I want to talk about in relation to social media having harmful effects on us as people is the time we spend on the sites. Studies show that the average time spent on social media sites per day has exceeded two hours.
While this might not seem like a horrendous disadvantage in and of itself, I think it is actually more important and more significant than we might expect.
Spending this much time per day on something that will help us learn a new skill, advance our career, open our minds, help our relationships, improve our health, and so on, would be a great thing. 2 hours a day adds up to a lot of hours per week, per month, and per year. And if this is used on something beneficial, then this can be a great thing.
But, on the flip side, when 2 hours a day is used on something that doesn’t bring us any real, long-term advantages, it is hard to justify this time being eaten away so regularly.
Of course, it depends on what you use social media for.
Some people will argue that they are indeed using social media for things that widen their knowledge and help them learn new skills. And while that might be true, it definitely won’t be the case for everyone, and a lot of social media use tends to be an almost dissociative practice, scrolling through content for a dopamine release.
That won’t be something we will look back on and be happy with later in life.
So, answer one to why is social media bad? We spend too much time on it.
Self-esteem
Issues with self-esteem are probably one of the first things we think of when we are wondering why is social media bad for us and our health, right? It’s the thing we probably hear the most about and see the most around us in our lives.
Scandal came recently when it was uncovered that Facebook did their own enquiries into how social media use impacted people and they found evidence of mental health risks, particularly around self-esteem, body image, and cyberbullying, and yet kept those findings to themselves.
One of the main issues with social media and self-esteem is the aspect of comparison. Many people, particularly young people, use social media to compare themselves and their own issues to other people. This has been noted to be particularly dangerous when it comes to users with eating disorders and other mental health factors.
So, answer number two to why is social media bad? It lowers our self-esteem and makes us unnecessarily compare ourselves to others.
Exposure to content
Another problem with social media usage and another answer to our question of why is social media bad is something that isn’t as reported just as much.
It is exposure to content that is harmful, hurtful, scary, illegal, gory, and many other things.
There is a lot of content out there that can be easily seen and accessed by people of all ages, even young children, and this content can pop up without any warning or block.
People have been taken off guard by heavy pornography, gory beheadings, and on-screen suicides, all on social media, without ever looking for it or asking for it.
This is something for us all to have a good think about, especially parents. It might not only be a question of why is social media bad but how can I protect myself and those around me from the content on social media that is harmful. That can be a trickier question to answer but less screen time, managed settings, and using platforms with safety options is the best place to start.
Answer number three to why is social media bad? It exposes us, as adults and children, to content we never needed to see in the first place, all at the very easy touch of a button.
Mental health
The answer that we hear most frequently in response to the question of why is social media bad is quite simply that it is bad for our mental health.
That is something we don’t even need research or statistics to know, we can see it all around us.
Social media usage can cause anxiety, depression, eating disorders, social withdrawal, agoraphobia, and many other difficulties and challenges to do with mental health. This is something that I think society has touched on, but not nearly enough. It needs to be something that we are acknowledging more and doing more about.
Our final answer to why is social media bad is that it can have lots of different negative impacts and effects on our mental health, even if we don’t see it all the time. And that is something we all need to have a good, long think about, and use that knowledge to influence how we go forward in our relationships with social media.
Maybe these answers today will be enough to give you some food for thought on your social media usage and the role you let it play in your life.
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