5 Negative Effects of Social Media on Society 

Social media is the brain of the digital world. Currently, it is the supreme source of earning profits and gaining millions of followers. Who wouldn’t love it? Businesses from all over the world enjoy a single roof option to engage with its target audience, promote their products and services, and keep expanding on foreign lands digitally. All in all, social media has a huge impact.  It let people approach one another and therefore a quick flow of communication begins for users all over the world. In a little over a decade, the digital imprint of social media has put some concerns into focus too.

 Did you know about the negative effects of social media on a user’s mentality?

Social media may be the new perspective of looking at life but it has a terrible effect on users. The youth are enthralled by filters, emoji, and stories and live streaming making them lose touch with the “reality”. Not only this, but social media insinuated its role at the political, professional, and domestic level at a lightning speed.

“Social media isn’t a utility. It’s not like power or water where all people care about is whether it works. Young people care about what using one platform or another says about them.” – Jonah Berger

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Why social media is bad: Negative effects of social media on society

You might be surprised to learn, social media problems have been on a rise since the last five years. 40% of the world’s population is using social media that includes sharing, tweeting, and updating all the real and fake information. If you can’t leave your mobile phone aside even for an hour then you have fallen a victim to the power of using social media. This led to some serious complications for a lot. Here are some of the most prominent negative effects of social media on society:

1.       The root cause of depression and anxiety

Where has the hours of browsing on the internet you? Maybe on the profile of your ex who dumped you out of nowhere or at someone you envy a lot. Result: a severe case of depression, anxiety, and jealousy!

Spending too much of your quality time on social media has adverse effects on your mental health. The impact of social media is not prominent on your mental well-being only but also had caused sudden mood swings too.

It doesn’t take much to figure out that spending long hours, scrolling through screen, jumping from one profile to the next has led the youth towards “social complexion”. Life as it is not fair already, and unintentionally a user starts comparing themselves to the social media influencers. This is a potential threat behind the suicides too.

2.   Rise in cyberbullying

One of the most common negative effects of social media, among teenagers, is cyberbullying. Since the invention of social media, the ratio of online bullies increased. People make fake ids, stalk the submissive audience, and act on it in a cruel way. Making fun of people creating embarrassing memes or gifs as a form of revenge is circulating the vast web of social media. 

Such cyberbullying cases are not only leaving mental scars on the young minds but also shaping route for suicide too. However, adults are not safe from heinous acts of cyberbullying either. Can you recall how nude of some high profile celebrities leaked on social media? It’s easy to hide your face on social media since a lot of “effects” and animal filters are available among many others.

3. Do you have FOMO?

Another major effect of social media includes the paranoia of “fear of missing out”. What if you put your cellphone aside for two minutes and something drastic happens? Relax! But people are so addicted to all social media platforms that they are literally breathing social media apps every second of their lives. 

This condition is a form of anxiety. FOMO means you fear to miss out on an experience that someone else is having. Checking online status and stories every two seconds is not going to change anything besides giving into the said fear.

4. Unrealistic expectations are common 

People post in their travel diaries while they actually might be in a park and posing in such a way that it looks like they are at the beach. People are self-absorbed in creating “fake realities” that they have actually forgotten what it feels like to have a real adventure. This is a major negative impact of social media: creating unhealthy/unrealistic expectations from what you see on the screen. 

Major posts are heavily staged and you can’t even differentiate from all the farce. People are so desperate to increase their Likes and Followers on social media that they also have lost the sense of having online privacy. Why is this happening?

“People lie on Social Media All the Time!”

5. It’s all-plastic!

In Mean Girls, Lindsay Lohan is the weird freak from Africa who was homeschooled and practically a math genius. To fit in with the “mean girls” she became one of them. Does that sound similar to you? Welcome to another negative impact of social media. The concept of body image is destructive these days. 

What is your idea of a perfect body? Do you picture Kylie Jenner? If that’s a yes, then reality is a complete opposite. The idea of perfect symmetrical eyebrows and a straight nose with perfectly aligned teeth is appealing on the outside. But how long will you be able to keep up with the fiasco?

It’s important to remember no one wakes up looking like a supermodel or has a natural full upper lip (some actually do) or have perfect blemish-free skin. People go to obscene lengths to make their bodies perfect. Injections, fillers, botox, etc are just the cream on the top. People go as far as changing their facial structures to have a perfectly chiseled face. 

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How to handle the negative impact of social media?

Social media is not without its advantages either but the negative effects are more pressing. There are a few things you can do to minimize social media problems;

• Remove social media apps from your home screen. 
• Spend more time with your family and friends outdoors. 
• Whenever you are working or spending a day output your cell phone on silent. 
• Read a book before you go to sleep. 
• Share positive thoughts on social media once a day (try to be more mindful). 
• Use social media for strategic meetings. 
• Create meaningful connections that may help you through difficulties at different stages of life and work. 
• Start practicing mediation like yoga or have a regular workout to release all toxic energy from your mind and body. 
• Focus on this mantra “Just because it is not on social media, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening”.

It’s not hard to break a habit that has a negative influence on your wellbeing. Because our world is a lot more interconnected thanks to globalization we cannot entirely dismiss the social media platforms. So it depends on your strong will and determination on how to control your social media addiction for good. 

So do you think you are ready to break social media addiction yet?