With the technology getting advanced, it has become easier to know what is happening on the other side of the world. For example, we can see what a person is actually doing in his life. The development of mobile technology has played an important role in shaping the impact of social media. Like every other thing in this world, social media also has two sides; the good and the bad, the pros and the cons. So, let us discuss them one by one and summarize whether social media is a boon or bane in our lives-
Pros-
Increase Contacts
The main advantage of social media is that you can get in touch with almost everyone; be it a long-lost friend or a college friend who shifted cities to chase his dreams. Almost a quarter of the world’s population is on Facebook today that has made it easier to talk to people whenever we want. It is a great way to see what is happening in the lives of people who matter to us. Truly, the impact of social media has gone from being an entertainer to a fully integrated part of nearly every aspect of daily life for many.
Improve Marketing and Sales
Social media is a wide network of people where the medium is open to communicate. You can find potential customers using social media. You can follow other user’s activities that can be useful for your company and brand. You can also participate in subjective discussions which can be useful to get more knowledge in focused topics.
General Fun and Enjoyment
No matter how hard we deny it, we cannot live without social media. It is certainly one of the best forms of entertainment we have in our lives. You turn towards it when you want to take a break from work or just want to relax at home. Sometimes, it really becomes convenient to be able to see exactly what our friends are up to without having to ask them directly like through the comments on some post or the post they make on any platform. People have naturally social creatures and thus social media plays an important role in their lives.
Real-Time News and Information Discovery
Gone are the days when we had to wait for the clock to strike 6 in order to watch some news on TV. You don’t even have to wait for the delivery boy to deliver the newspaper in the morning. If you want to know what is going on in the world, all you have to do is to jump over social media. And an added advantage to this is you can customize the type of news that you want to watch and skip all the others.
Great Opportunities for Business Owners
Business owners and other types of professionals can connect with current customers in order to sell their products or to expand their business using social media. There are a lot of businesses that won’t be able to operate without social media and thus they are dependent on it.
Cons-
There is no doubt in the fact that social media has a dark side too. You have to keep a check on the way that you use it. Undoubtedly, social media is fun and engaging but as a matter of fact, it should be used properly and harmful information should always be avoided. The cons of social networking are listed below-
Information Overload and Overwhelm
Social media can be pretty noisy sometimes with so many people tweeting and posting on all other platforms. People become overwhelmed sometimes with the fact that they have a social life to maintain; so many people on Facebook to look onto. Over time, we tend to rack up a lot of friends and followers, and that can lead to lots of bloated news feeds with too much content we are not at all interested in.
Privacy issues
So much is shared online these days that issues over privacy are becoming an increasingly big concern. We have to give all sorts of access to all our personal information while setting up a new account on any platform. You can also become a target after sharing your geographical information online or you may get into trouble after tweeting something inappropriate. We have to admit that sharing too much with the public can open up all sorts of problems that sometimes can never be undone.
Cyber Bullying
There have been a lot of cases of cyberbullying and social peer pressure. Most people struggle to fit in with their peers; the pressure to do certain things in a certain way. More or less, you have to maintain a social image. Most people suffer a lot of mental disorders like anxiety, depression, and many other things because of this pressure.
Increased feeling of social isolation
We might have earned a lot of friends online, but the feeling of social isolation remains constant. Social media sometimes promotes anti-social human behavior. Social media has made it easier to connect with our friends but in reality, we are becoming distant from our loved ones day by day. How often do we call someone rather than dropping them a text? So, yes social media is the reason we feel a constant void inside of us.
Distractions
People are habitual of checking their phones every now and then. They get easily distracted; while studying, driving, or doing anything else. Browsing social media sometimes causes a lot of problems as you might not even pay attention to a conversation someone is having with you.
Conclusion
So, if you are thinking about whether you should get off social media then there are some clear benefits to using social media. So, you can’t just abandon social media platforms no matter what. Hence, you will need some more time in order to introspect and evaluate whether it is doing more harm or good for you, personally. If you feel that any of these platforms is having a negative impact on your life, take a break from it for a while. Consider uninstalling it temporarily, deleting it for a week or so. After a week, ask yourself how do you feel now? And then re-install it accordingly.
Let us be honest, detaching completely from social media can be really hard, but you can always choose to use it wisely. Still, wondering how social media affects our life? Remember to use it to impact people and not to impress them.