Positives And Negatives Of Social Media

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Social Media: Tweet, Like, Share Think about how much time you spend updating your Facebook status, sending out tweets, or watching YouTube videos each day. Social media is a great way for people to connect with friends, family, and even strangers from all over the globe. In today’s world, anyone can be a creator, sharing and posting content to the Internet on a variety of social media websites and applications. A hot topic for debate these days is the question if social media is actually good or bad for us in today’s society. While most people acknowledge the innovation and usefulness of social media, there remain questions about the overall impact it has on society and individuals. Social media usage can have many negative effects on society …show more content…
As a result, it is clear that overuse of social media should be avoided. However, in today’s society, it becomes impossible to ignore the positive impacts of social media as well. Consequently, the use of social media should not be avoided overall, but rather should be monitored and used responsibly. One of the biggest negative impacts of social media is that it wastes time. It seems fairly easy to understand that a person might be more interested at looking at their friend’s vacation photos than they would be in doing work or studying for university. One study suggests that the social media phenomenon has caused businesses in Great Britain to lose more than $2 billion each year (Jung, 2016). More than 89% of people admit to wasting time at work checking social media while even a small percentage report that they often waste up to half of an 8-hour work day (Snow, 2012). These statistics are difficult to brush aside when considering the usefulness of social media. However, it is also important to realize that people can utilize self-control when it comes to how much they are using social media. Most people know how easy it is to think “I’ll just check out today’s top stories,” and realize soon that two hours have passed while you were reading more and more updates and stories. To combat problems like this when productivity is a factor, at work or while studying, for example, simple steps can be taken. A …show more content…
Social media encourages people to share details about their lives that they may not usually openly share with other people. One example that has been seen over and over again in recent history is that college students often share their party photos on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. While it may be totally expected that college students will engage in some party behaviors, what is not expected is that they will post evidence of those behaviors for all the world to see. The negative impact comes around when those students have graduated and start looking for jobs. A potential employer might not look so favorably upon a person who is pictured taking shots at a party (Jung, 2016). What people tend to ignore when they post things in social media is that these posts are permanent. Even if they are deleted from the account, it is possible for the images and posts to show back up because they cannot be permanently deleted from the Internet (Snow, 2013). The easiest way to get around this negative impact is to be discerning about what is posted to one’s social media accounts. A simple rule might be to image if you would want your grandmother, or a future employer, to see these things. If not, it is probably not a good idea to post

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