The Horrors of Social Media
Social Media, Who Hasn't?
We
all have experience with social media, whether it’s watching a YouTube video,
watching Tik Toc, or even talking with someone over the internet, we have all used
social media. But do we really use social media in moderation, or do we use
social media in an excessive sense? What if we came to rely on social media too heavily?
What would happen to each and every one of us?
Social Media Makes Us Feel Good,
Right? WRONG!
According to the eBook, Social
Media and hate, social media consists of “trolling, abusive speech,
doxing, and hacking”. When thinking about social media we may not see these acts
as something that can happen to us, but it does eventually. We get hacked and
scammed through the internet, but we also get abused by different types of
speech. The abusive speech that is written, gives people depression and
eventually leads to more harm than good.
Social Media causes
"increased levels of depression, anxiety, and physiological distress"
according to The
Light and the Dark Side of Social Media Use: Depression, Anxiety, and Eating
Attitudes among adolescents. With the help of abusive speech, social
media causes depression in adolescents and young adults. This in fact can lead
to much worse. What can be worse than depression, anxiety, or physiological
distress? Death. People can feel so lowly about themselves because of social
media and end up taking their own lives away. They cannot see their own
light due to the pain social media brings people.
Social Media causes more harm than good when looking at all the facts, however many of us overlook the harms to pretend and become distracted by social media to bring us out of our daily life.
A
girl seems to be depressed by looking at her phone and potentially checking her social
media.
Social Media’s “Harmless” Challenges.
While social media has harmful speech, it also has
harmful content. Some people do dangerous challenges to seem cool and be in the
"in-crowd", but we are just hurting ourselves.
In the article, Social
Media 'fails young', talks about how "a survey
of 2,000 children by Rachel de Souza also found that half had seen harmful
content online in the same period". This means that if many children are
finding harmful content, then think about the amount of harmful dangerous
challenges we find. We are more susceptible to these harmful challenges and if
in the wrong hands, someone can take their life.
Another
article Harmful
'games' and challenges that can be found on social media, lists
different challenges such as the black-out challenge, the gauntlet challenge,
and the bright eye challenge. The author lists different challenges and the
synopsis of what people do in them. These challenges cause distress to someone
and can harm them for a long time, if not for life. These challenges can lead
to anxiety, depression, and physiological grief as mentioned before.
This can truly hurt people and if this is not
stopped, more lives may be lost through the use of social media challenges. One
such is the Blue-Whale challenge. While many have tried to stop and ban this
challenge, it was a challenge in which the user would hurt themselves for weeks
on end and eventually take their own life.
Challenges like these need to stop; however, social
media does encourage such challenges. If people were to not use social media in
excess, then these challenges may not be a problem, for people would have lives
outside of social media. But for those who live within their own world of
social media, these challenges may quite literally mean life or death for them.
This is not what social media was meant for, but
what it can cause.
In the article, Social
Media 'fails young', talks about how "a survey
of 2,000 children by Rachel de Souza also found that half had seen harmful
content online in the same period". This means that if many children are
finding harmful content, then think about the amount of harmful dangerous
challenges we find. We are more susceptible to these harmful challenges and if
in the wrong hands, someone can take their life.
Another
article Harmful
'games' and challenges that can be found on social media, lists
different challenges such as the black-out challenge, the gauntlet challenge,
and the bright eye challenge. The author lists different challenges and the
synopsis of what people do in them. These challenges cause distress to someone
and can harm them for a long time, if not for life. These challenges can lead
to anxiety, depression, and physiological grief as mentioned before.
This can truly hurt people and if this is not
stopped, more lives may be lost through the use of social media challenges. One
such is the Blue-Whale challenge. While many have tried to stop and ban this
challenge, it was a challenge in which the user would hurt themselves for weeks
on end and eventually take their own life.
Challenges like these need to stop; however, social
media does encourage such challenges. If people were to not use social media in
excess, then these challenges may not be a problem, for people would have lives
outside of social media. But for those who live within their own world of
social media, these challenges may quite literally mean life or death for them.
This is not what social media was meant for, but
what it can cause.
HARMFUL?
Some
readers may believe that social media is positive and beneficial. They may
take into account that social media allows people to connect. They may
bring in instances like the lockdown during Covid-19. We connected through the
internet, mainly through social media. They can also use facts like during work
or even college, people use social media to communicate their ideas and to
collaborate with other people.
But
what they don't see is what social media does under all of the positives. The
good things shield people from seeing the bad and negative parts. Social media
can cause harm to others. Yes, social media is good when used in moderation;
however, when used in excess social media can become a dangerous platform for
someone to hurt themselves with.
Social
Media is harmful, and we overlook that just so we can escape from our daily
lives, but what we eventually do is cause ourselves more depression, anxiety,
and physiological distress. Because of the harmful content, people end up worse
than they would have if they did not go on social media.
If we use
social media correctly and as a society help change some parts of social media,
then we may just help those in need. Those who have been hurt through social media
use may be able to find comfort in it if we change social media for the
better.
This image is to warn people
that social
media can be harmful and that we should take caution.
Some
readers may believe that social media is positive and beneficial. They may
take into account that social media allows people to connect. They may
bring in instances like the lockdown during Covid-19. We connected through the
internet, mainly through social media. They can also use facts like during work
or even college, people use social media to communicate their ideas and to
collaborate with other people.
But
what they don't see is what social media does under all of the positives. The
good things shield people from seeing the bad and negative parts. Social media
can cause harm to others. Yes, social media is good when used in moderation;
however, when used in excess social media can become a dangerous platform for
someone to hurt themselves with.
Social
Media is harmful, and we overlook that just so we can escape from our daily
lives, but what we eventually do is cause ourselves more depression, anxiety,
and physiological distress. Because of the harmful content, people end up worse
than they would have if they did not go on social media.
If we use social media correctly and as a society help change some parts of social media, then we may just help those in need. Those who have been hurt through social media use may be able to find comfort in it if we change social media for the better.
This image is to warn people
that social
media can be harmful and that we should take caution.
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