How long have you been on social media? Do you love or hate it? There are so many pros and cons to using social media platforms these days. It’s hard to say that you love it, but it has become so common that it’s hard to say that you hate it either. Explore those pros and cons with me in this post!
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| Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay |
Social media platforms have evolved so much through the years. The Fandesals Podcast discussed this evolution in one of their episodes. If you speak Tagalog, this is an episode you may want to listen to.
I still remember the first time I encountered social media. Things were so much different back then. I am surprised by how much social media platforms have evolved from back then up to the present. I have tried so many!
I was on Friendster and Myspace. I was also on Multiply, which I liked a lot. I have also tried the various competitors of Twitter. And like most other people, I have accounts on Facebook and Instagram as well. I’ve even had an account on the Korean social media platform Cyworld because I was curious about it! I can't believe how much I have tried through the years!
What started as a means for connecting with family and friends has become such a powerful tool. It helps with networking, marketing, communication, and social activism.
Here are some pros and cons that we get from social media:
PROS
Communication and Networking
One of the best things about social media is that it helps us to stay in touch with family and friends. It doesn’t matter how far they are anymore. Social media is the means for people to keep each other updated despite the distance.
I love that social media helps to give people the opportunity to reach people we would not be able to face to face. With everyone having a social media account, it is easy to find a way to be in touch with other people. You can use it to network and learn, go into business with, or get others to help you with your career growth.
Information Sharing
Sharing news, information, and updates is faster with social media. It helps to keep people informed about the latest events and developments all over the world.
You don't only get updated on current events, you get educated too. There is so much you can learn online on so many of the platforms. There is always something out there for everyone.
Self-Expression and Community Building
Everyone can express themselves on social media. It is a means for people to share their creative pursuits with videos, photos, art, and other posts. It is not limited to being a means for self-expression. It is also a means for people to find people who have the same creative interests. I love discovering how creative people can be on social media. There is so much to learn from everyone to get creative.
Social media also benefits people by helping them build communities. It puts together people with shared interests. The connection makes it easier to support each other and their common interest.
As a fan of various types of entertainment, having these communities helps to keep me up to date. It also provides me with the information I need to support my favorites. Getting to know and being able to learn from people with similar interests has also been good for me. They helped me to develop my social skills, a benefit of being a fan that I am grateful for.
Activism
Social media gives people the means to raise awareness about social issues. It helps promote social activism. This proved useful during periods of natural disasters. People can start efforts for help on social media.
The ability for people to come together for a good cause through social media is good. It puts together people who would not be able to organize otherwise because of distance. With the help of modern technology, they can arrange activities from their gadgets. They can help other people without even leaving their homes.
Business and Marketing
The networking opportunities of social media platforms help businesses to sell their products. They use it for marketing and for putting up shops as well. It is also a good way for businesses to gauge the reaction of their target markets. It helps to engage with them to make their business better. The pandemic proves the power of this with the development of online shops on social media.
Education
As the pandemic has taught us, social media can help people to learn without being face-to-face. These platforms are useful for teachers wanting to share lessons with their students. Some professionals also use it to share content to help people learn from them for free.
CONS
Cyberbullying & Harassment
One of the biggest issues online is cyberbullying and online harassment. People can hide behind a false account or an anonymous icon and username. It has become easy for people to become brave and attack people online because of it. These negative actions can be stressful. It could also affect your mental health if you become a victim of this type of bullying and harassment.
Unfortunately, it is not easy to control cyberbullying and online harassment. People who troll others often make the effort to try to hide their true identities online. While there are things you can do to avoid them (blocking, reporting, etc.), it is hard to make these types of people go away.
It is best to know what you are getting into before giving other people access to your life online. Be aware of what you do, share and who has access to them.
Privacy Concerns
Online life comes with privacy concerns. How much information about ourselves can (or should) we share on social media? How safe is our information online? Drawing the line can sometimes be challenging on social media. It is up to us to figure out how private or public we can be about our lives.
Excessive Screentime
Social media can be addictive. It can be this rabbit hole that you jump into and find difficult to get out of once you start scrolling. There is an infinite amount of information online so social media can suck out too much of your time if you let it.
Be sure that you set limits for yourself on social media. You need to develop a means to control the time you spend on it. Most phones can help you with this. You can set up limits to your screen time during the day to help you avoid using social media too much.
Self-Esteem/Mental Health Issues
There is a tendency for people to compare themselves to others on social media. This can lead to self-esteem and other mental health issues if we allow this to affect our lives.
We need to remember that what we see online is not always the complete picture. We should not compare ourselves to what others allow us to see on social media.
Misinformation
It may be good that we get a lot of information online on social media, but that is not always good. It may all be out there, but we are not sure if the information that we get is accurate.
There is a risk that the information we get is inaccurate. All that information may be there to influence us into certain ideologies. These may be things that we may not agree with otherwise.
Too much information can lead to people not being able to think for themselves. This aspect of social media is something that we must be very cautious about. We cannot allow social media to dictate and mold us into a set of ideals. We must learn to know ourselves. We need to have our thoughts and decisions outside of the influence of social media.
I have taken time off social media because of this reason, and it has its benefits. Taking that step back can help us to recognize how we use social media. We can figure out whether we are being ourselves or allowing social media to tell us who we are. For me, it has given me more time to do other things. And it has reduced my stress levels a lot.
Fake Accounts
As mentioned earlier, people can hide behind fake accounts on social media. The concept of catfishing, people pretending to be someone else, victimizes many online. This is why we must be careful with the people we interact with online and what we share with them.
There are so many scammers who have ripped off people financially and emotionally. We need to be aware that people may not always be who they seem on these platforms. That goes for dating apps too. We need to learn to recognize red flags when we see them.
There are many benefits to social media that we can explore, enjoy, and take advantage of. At the same time, we need to be aware of the disadvantages and the potential it has to affect our lives. We need to set our limits on social media use. We have to ensure that its impact on our lives is more to our advantage and not disadvantage. This is for our safety and privacy and also for our mental health.
What do you think of social media? Has it been a good thing for you? Have you had your share of horror stories on these platforms? How many of them have you tried? Share your stories in the comments section and let’s discuss this a little more!
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