Impact Of Social Media On Society Essay

Today is the era of technological revolution and modernization. The impact of social media acts as a dominant force and educational agent in our society. It has become a part of everyone’s social life nowadays. Still, at the same time, it negatively affects the mental and physical health of our younger generation. Social media makes us unsocial and has changed the way we live our lives from the way we get news to the way we interact with loved ones. It is everywhere, it is powerful, and it is growing.

Negative Impact of Social Media on Society

The negative impact of social media on children’s health must be seen as soon as it is noticed in children’s activities in order to make their lives peaceful and happy.

Health Problem

The young people in our society may suffer from the rapid pace of social media use. Because of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and many other apps, children are losing attention to their studies. They are becoming more obsessed with the virtual world than the real one. 

As a result, there is a daily rise in anxiety, depression, ADHD, schizotypal disorder, and weak eyes. Therefore, making our children follow healthy and balanced routines warrants immediate attention.

Impact of social media on society 

Children and younger ones spend their precious time using different social media apps, for example, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, etc. They are mostly seen as quite busy using social media at night and after school. This results in fatigue that affects their sleep span.

Pervasive addiction

Today, the most common impact of social media is the addiction that it produces. The younger generation has developed an addictive habit of constantly updating, checking the news feed, and reading stories on social media platforms. This generates a reward center in the brain, which is highly sensitive in adolescence. These characteristics significantly impact their mood and drive much of their daily behavior.

Disturbance in routine activity

They spend hours watching videos, photos, and other content posted on their social media accounts because young people are becoming addicted to it. Therefore, this overuse disturbs their basic daily activities like sports and studies. They are going to lack sports and other physical activities. As a result, they end up in the SBI health cycle. It also disturbs their studies and other productive activities. A check on their use of social media is needed to stop this silent disaster.

Erratic and Unpredictable Behavior

A child’s behavior becomes erratic and unpredictable when they spend a lot of time on social media. It’s common knowledge that children who use social media for longer than three hours experience negative effects. The Blue Whale and PUBG games have created many cases of suicide. 

It is abundantly clear that kids are very likely to pick up aggressive and violent behavior. Yet we let them play “war-themed” video games or aggressive fighting games. Yet we openly expose them. 

Anxiety is a characteristic that many people share because it results from their desires not being fulfilled, including other people not liking them on Facebook, Instagram, or other social media platforms or not responding to their messages.

Retarded mental growth

Virtual immersion and its lasting effects on children’s minds retard emotional and social growth. Due to social media comparisons and cyberbullying, youngsters feel alienated and dissatisfied with their lives, which lowers their subjective well-being as they think that the lives of their friends are better than their own.

Even seemingly innocent media content, such as cartoons, is pro-aggressive. Look at Ben Ten or even Oggy and the Cockroaches; they are all teaching kids how to express their displeasure with someone or something by displaying aggressive behavior, such as hitting, punching, throwing things, or waging a physical war. 

Galloping narcissism

Narcissism in children is bred by excessive use of mobile devices and by sharing and comparing updates and selfies on a regular basis. Their mood depends upon the reaction they get to their post. Children’s coloring pages become more self-centered, a sign of emotional dysfunction that may appear later in their lives. Also, they will have less empathy for others.

Burgeoning violence

Children who are addicted to social media lose their capacity to accept others. They become intolerable because of the sort of fake competition on these platforms and a desire to draw more users. This fuels their envy and encourages them to let their adversary down, which is the main driver of violence and intolerance. On these forums, they can easily access violent and lengthy content that shapes their minds in the wrong direction. 

Take a well-behaved, golden child and expose him to violence and negativity for a month, and you will see how rapidly the child’s habits and behavior change. This is because their subconscious mind is always picking up and downloading things from their environment. 

Deceitful People

On social media platforms, fake people’s presence may seem fascinating and thrilling to some, but it has also led to many heartbreaks and broken relationships. So think twice before you give someone on social media your confidence.

How Should Parents Handle Their Child’s Social Media Usage

Undeniably, a complete aversion to its usage is impossible. It has positive and productive output as well. Balance and moderation in the use of social media are needed. This could only be possible if parents play an active role in checking the activities of their children. 

• Educate children about the positive and negative effects of social media. As we are living in the heyday of the technological revolution, it is not easy to put the use of social media on the back burner. Only moderation and balance in the use of different forms are needed to use them to benefit children at large. 
• Bar them from using violent content. We want to teach them how to be patient and how to suppress aggressive impulses because they lead to further problems. The solution is communication, not tantrums and violence
• Encourage them to engage more in real life instead of online networking. 
• Let them spend more time physically doing sports and going on outings.
• Suggest they use social media platforms constructively to enhance their learning.  Children have highly suggestive and vulnerable minds; they soak up whatever they are exposed to without any free will.
• We want to teach them forgiveness, not revenge (as the social curriculum is teaching them). 
• We want to teach them how to be productive, not provocative. 

Here you can check the famous learning gadget for kids

Conclusion

Everyone has a different opinion about the impact of social media on our society. Parents should handle their children’s social media usage because they learn or adopt whatever they are exposed to. However, the majority of parents, teachers, older siblings, and society as a whole do not treat it seriously enough; we as a society are not acknowledging the fact that the media and its inherent toxicity are deforming children’s highly suggestive, vulnerable minds by hypnotizing them. 

So please, if we want healthy children (who, in turn, can make a healthy society), we need to ensure we are bringing them up in a healthy and positive environment! Social media is not altogether bad; it is only bad if used excessively and unsupervised. Therefore, make sure that innocent children are using social media as a learning platform and not as a “violence training academy.”