Negative sides of social media

Author: Iloka Benneth Chiemelie
Published: 1st April 2017

Since its inception, the internet has brought numerous advantages to humanity. Mr. Chin no longer needs to write a letter and wait for weeks before getting a reply from his wife in China, while working in New York. Through social media, he can now remain in direct contact with his wife 24/7. However, social media has numerous negative effects as discussed below.

False sense of connection (ALI, 2015) – On Facebook, you can have countless number of friends (across the world) and you could feel like you have real friends. However, these friends will not be able to offer you desired help when needed. The little 2 or 3 friends you have in the real world can be life savers as against the thousands on social media who are just there to “like” your posts and “follow” you. Thus, social media gives us false sense of connection.

Reduced productivity (Degreed, n.d.) – It has been recorded in different researches that staffs adopt corporate (paid) working hours to go through their Facebook and other social media accounts. In the process, they are spending the time they supposed to be working with doing other things of personal interest. Thus, their productivity is reduced in the process but the company will still fit their salaries as if they have dedicated all their time doing designated tasks only.

Privacy issues (Frazier, n.d.) – With a click, someone from Beijing can have all your information. They can obtain your residential address in Dhaka, information about your family, work place, and other personal interests. This is dangerous as it can lead to defamation and impersonation. This is all as a result of increased penetration of social media.

Cyber bullying (Jung, n.d.) – Due to poor privacy issues, some people have been subjected to cyber bullying. By cyber bullying, the author imply a user demanding certain favor from a social media victim in order to avoid certain negative impacts. For instance, one could have your personal information and threaten to defame you publicly or maybe post comments that can affect your employment. Without social media, such would have been relatively difficult.

Addition (Mwila, 2013) - Social media is also addictive. Whether you just want to reply a message, reflect on a comment or watch movie, you could end up spending majority of your time on the social media. This addiction is even worse as social media is considered a social norm. It can also lead to addiction of negative social behaviors such as pornography etc.

Increase in social violence (Frazier, n.d.) – it is not surprising that some of the terrorist groups across the world adopt social media as a medium to propagate their social vices. Some people might become motivated by their achievement and decide to connect with them, thus bring about an increase in social vices.

Negative health impact (Mwila, 2013) – across the globe, people share their views via social media and the less unformed tend to adopt such views in real life without considering their related negative impact. Thus, social media endangers a lot of people health wise.

References

ALI, I. (2015, 6 15). Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society. Retrieved from Tech Bead: http://www.techbead.com/positive-and-negative-effects-of-social-media-on-society/

Degreed. (n.d.). 10 Ways Social Media Affects Our Mental Health. Retrieved from Degreed: http://blog.degreed.com/10-ways-social-media-affects-our-mental-health/

Frazier, K. (n.d.). Negative Impact of Social Networking Sites. Retrieved from Love to know: http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com/Negative_Impact_of_Social_Networking_Sites

Jung, B. (n.d.). The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and Individuals. Retrieved from Small Business : http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-effect-social-media-society-individuals-27617.html

Mwila, A. K. (2013, 10 31). Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society. Retrieved from LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/positive-negative-effects-social-media-society-ali-kingston