5 Problems With Social Media
Social media has made it easier to communicate with those we meet during this journey we call life. The speedy dissemination of information, the entrance into networks you wouldn't otherwise have access to, the platform to share your stories and ideas, it's all great and can make your life a lot easier if you know how to use it, but you shouldn't rely on it solely. There are a lot of problems that innovators have yet to address with the creation and growing popularity of social media. Here are five of the ones I see as some of the biggest problems that have emerged.
1. The Online Disinhibition Effect
According to Wikipedia (this is a blog entry, not a scholarly paper, yo), online disinhibition effect is "a loosening (or complete abandonment) of social restrictions and inhibitions that would otherwise be present in normal face-to-face interaction during interactions with others on the Internet."1 Basically, because people are anonymous or semi-anonymous on social media, they don't really follow any sort of regular social protocol, and the abandonment of social rules can do some major damage. In some cases, this effect can be benign, and allow others to open up to people more than usual. Unfortunately, this effect has more often than not negative consequences. With perceived anonymity, people take no regards to the effect of their words, posts, pictures, videos, and any activities they participate in on social media on others. Have you ever read the comment section of an article on Facebook and saw people attacking others with no regard for the wellbeing of the other person? This is a prime example of how this is a huge problem that comes along with the social media boom. Cyberbulling is another huge problem with the online disinhibition effect. People hide behind their screens on their keyboards, making others feel worthless, for some sort of personal gain that I really don't get. You see this with people making fun of aspects of others' identities and expressions. This point really ties in nicely with my second point about the effect of social media on mental health. These people are "keyboard warriors," spewing hateful speech and attacking others, disregarding social norms, in a way that we know they would never do when face-to-face with someone. People claim they are just "keeping it real," but when you are acting in a way you wouldn't normally act towards someone, how is that keeping it real? Aren't you just an insecure, hateful, fake person hiding behind your screen?
2. The Effect On Mental Health
The effects of social media on mental health are widespread and many. Using social media creates a pressure for people to make themselves available for social contact 24/7. This can produce sleep deficits with people spending countless hours absorbed in social media related activities, and we all know the harms that can result for those who get too little sleep, including. This pressure of availability can also increase the risk of anxiety and depression, especially among teenagers. Along with this, social media creates yet another avenue to create pressure on young adults to conform to certain societal standards. In this, I refer mostly to societal standards of beauty. Young adults begin to feel that if they don't meet the standards, that they are not good enough. They lose self-esteem, resort to strenuous activities to meet those beauty standards, such as dieting, exercising, wearing a lot of makeup, etc. These activities can develop into more severe mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. This also goes along with the increasing sexualization of women via social media. This teaches young women that they are sexual objects and rejects any sense of self worth they may feel.
Cyberbullying, as I discussed in the previous bullet, can take a major toll on mental health. Cyberbullying occurs similarly to regular bullying and has many of the same effects, but one distinct characteristic that makes it even more dangerous is the sense of anonymity. Anyone could be behind the screen saying awful, hurtful things, and the ability to share that information with the world wide web takes regular bullying beyond and makes it visible to the entire world. There have been many cases where young adults have taken their lives as a result of the cyberbullying by others. I recommend watching the movie Cyberbully. I saw it a couple of months ago on Netflix and I think it did a pretty good job illustrating many of the effects of social media on mental health. The anonymity that comes with cyberbullying allows the bully to conceal their identity and not have to deal with any consequences that may arise from their actions. It makes it that much harder to get justice for a victim and to stop it once it's begun. It makes it that much harder to prevent it from happening in the first place.
3. Diminishing Social Skills & Presence
With the increase in popularity of social media, we see an increase with social relationships brought to the online platform. Much of this social interaction occurs solely online and it appears that we have forgotten how to interact with others offline. Our social interaction on the internet consists of conversations via social networking sites with people we know in real life and others form various places in the world that we met online. While this can be great for expanding one's social network, it doesn't help much in practicing of valuable social skills and the ability to be fully present. Instead of having long conversations about whatever is going on in the world, our conversations are limited to short phrases or sentences and then pulling out our phone. Instead of hanging out and doing non-internet related stuff at a friends house, you sit together in silence with your smartphones out browsing your social media accounts. Instead of getting outdoors and enjoying nature, we spend our afternoons taking selfies with friends and coming up with the perfect gifs or memes to post. We've lost the ability to spend hours on the phone with friends talking about life and everything we want to accomplish. We miss out on the ability to be fully present with others, and fully present in a world that didn't always have such a reliance on technology. We are losing the ability to build concrete, stable relationships with other, and instead build friendships that can be broken with a false information circulating between a social group and the de-friend button on Facebook. We've lost the ability to enjoy life without an urge to always be connected to each other. Most importantly, we've lost the ability to feel comfortable being alone. We have the need to always feel like we are connected to others and for that, we don't know how to navigate the world without others a "poke" away. We substitute the real beauties of the world with pictures from google images, and substitute the actual experiences we could be having with pins to our boards on Pinterest.
4. Addiction
A lot of us joke that we have an addiction to our social media sites, but for some, the addiction is real, and it's a debilitating part of their lives. Their addiction with accessing these social media sites, as well as internet in general, interferes with with their normal life. Some of you may be thinking, "Yeah, sure. It's not like alcohol or drugs. What's the harm? Is addiction to this even real, or is it just an overused expression to identify a long time spent on the internet?" The jury is still out on whether or not internet addiction disorder can be classified as a DSM disorder, but it has been proposed as such. The DSM, for those of you not familiar with psychology, is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders. It is the book that identifies what constitutes particular mental disorders and is not revised very often, anywhere from every 6-16 years.2 We'll have to stay tuned for the final verdict, but though it is not listed in the most recent edition of the DSM, we do know that it can prove to be debilitating for some lives. And for those who do not meet the criteria for the disorder, there are many who spend several hours each day on the internet and in turn miss out on other aspects of their lives, and that is problematic. We need to reevaluate the importance of these sites in our life and whether it is worth the potential risk of a developing a true addiction.
5. Dangers of Disclosing Personal Information
With the expansion of social networks through online communication such as that through social media and social networking sites, it's can often be troubling to keep personal information private. Though many sites have created many different privacy settings that user information can be kept safe and secure, those settings don't always reach far in terms of sharing. Individuals may begin to feel comfortable with others in their online social networks and become more open to sharing details about themselves. While this can be great in terms of their social development, those they are sharing to may not always have the best intentions. In addition, on many sites, sharing personal information with others, like third party websites, is an opt out feature, and takes work on part of the user to make sure their personal information is secure.
The Bottom Line
Though social media sites have been extremely useful in helping to connect us to the world around us, they are not perfect and come with various risks. My best advice is to be aware of how you use them and make sure that they do not start to consume all of your time and sanity. If that is the case, go on a short hiatus. Those sites will still be there when you return.
References: 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_disinhibition_effect
2 - http://www.mofas.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/DSMQA1.pdf
