How Social is Social Media? Nathan Yip
Social Media has been an ever increasing industry since 1983, and has been developed into a truly wonderful and inspiring monument of humanity and it’s technological achievements, though we should perhaps come to question it’s modern development, and how far it has come since the formation of the internet, to the first Youtube videos, and the beginning of mobile phones… How good or bad is social media for the world, and society as a whole, and what are its implications on society?
On the negative side of things, Social media has provided platforms for bullying, discrimination, disinformation, bias, and normalization of unhealthy popularity seeking behaviour… Some who use social media on a constant basis and a thirst for likes and a quick boost of popularity might commit to some truly questionable, to completely dangerous or illegal activity for a shot at fame and recognition, which is made especially clear by some of the more dangerous “Tick-Tock Challenges”, such as the currently trending “NyQuil Chicken Challenge”, in which a Chicken is cooked after being doused in NyQuil Nighttime Cough and Cold medicine, which is thereafter partially consumed by the Tick-Tocker… Such challenges are indeed so dangerous that the FDA got involved partially by going online to tell internet users not to put NyQuil on their chicken. Other various challenges such as this, used for quick boosts of fame, could very well endanger the lives of many people who use these platforms, and even those who are affected by their fame-seeking behaviour…
Social exclusion is also another major problem with Social media… For how social and interconnected Social media is, a good sum of those who strongly engage in Social media often exclude and disconnect themselves from reality, pushing further and further into the virtual world, and out of the physical world. Social media has also been responsible for degrading mental health of some users through bullying, over-idolizing famous internet figures, discrimination, disconnection from reality, and a lack of in-person friendships, resulting in depression, low self-esteem, and other such dangerous mental health effects…
On the positive side of things, Social media has been a platform for dozens of new industries, jobs, and an easily accessible vault of information and content for entertainment, learning, reading, sharing, friendships, and communication… Someone being able to talk to someone else on the other side of the world in an instant was a concept unheard of before the internet was built, and even after, Social media continues to stand as a beacon of advancement and progress for humanity. People can use Social media to stay up to date with recent, trending, or present events, find new friends and communities, and raise awareness on events or causes. Many can learn things they never knew about very quickly with a quick google search, people from all across the world can communicate and keep in touch with one another, and the internet itself is a vast and rapidly expanding landscape of entertainment, learning, and social spaces to explore.
Our view on Social media is purely ours to behold, and what each person thinks of it may be wildly different… Social media, and the internet as a whole has its good and bad sides, but it is both a beacon of progress, and a potentially dangerous place if we aren’t careful.