Social Media has been an ideal marketing tool of 21st century, affecting lives of bajillion peoples throughout the world. Diverse social media networks such as Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Tiktok, and more have affixed to the day-to-day livelihood of people in the present day.
However, is social media usage impacting the social and mental perspective of the people? If it is, how good or bad is the contemporary engagement? Let’s find out!
Table of Contents
Cons of Social Media
Mentioned beneath are the few cons of Social media in the modern world:
Lack of Privacy and Intrusion:
Although the usage of social media seems fairly entertaining and full of prospect, it lacks the privacy of personal information, messages or any shared data in the form of audio, video, image, to name a few. As per the survey, 42% people reported difficulty in managing privacy settings as they were unaware about it. Furthermore, NSA (National Security Agency) monitors social media activity of an individual just by entering their username, gaining access to their personal and confidential information easily.
Outspread of False Information:
“Fake News” sharing and posting has become a fair trend in the social media platform nowadays. According to research, 16% of the Twitter users complained that the news they reposted or retweeted were false information, 64% said the news they read was later discovered false. Even in Facebook, the fake news stories about 2016 US presidential election were shared 37.6 million times.
Virtual Socialization for Physical Isolation:
Even though people socialize quite amazingly in social media platforms, the physical socialization approach is hindered as people tend to cease the physical meetups, gatherings, social meetings, among many. This leads to the deterioration of engagement in personal and social relationships physically.
Cyberbullying:
Cyberbullying remains the topmost demerits of social media networks as varied community remain bullied and abused in social media platforms. Be it a verbal abuse, or blackmail in the forms of threats of leaks of private and confidential data for one’s advantage, 52% of the students reported being the sufferers of cyberbullying with 84.2% convicting Facebook, 23.4% convicting Instagram, 21.4% convicting Twitter and 13.5% convicting Snapchat, as they were threatened to act accordingly; a fear of maintaining a moral impression and status in the virtual world, in spite of their physical status or trademark remains disregarded as an irony.
Copyright Infringement Issues:
Social media aids in exposure of any data or information like images, videos, audios, and more. Moreover, a regular user can easily access, download or upload the contents on the social media platforms. This leads of upload of illegal videos or music wherein the profit goes to the one who shared it and not the owner, infringing his/her copyright. For instance, Daniel Morel, a photographer was awarded $1.2 million in damage after his photographed pictures were allegedly used by Getty Images and AFP, willfully infringing his copyright by selling photos he had posted on social media, without his permission.
Security Attacks:
As the social media platforms don’t scan messages that are vulnerable or phishing scams, the active users are left at shadow as their personal information can be hacked or breached anytime. Hence, Hacking, Identity Theft, and Malwares are the main concern from the security perspective of a user.
Unethical advertising approach:
In social media platforms, the Ads are kept in such a way that if a user clicks on one, he/she can grant access to his/her additional information even if they aren’t available on their social media profiles. Hence, data theft based on personal information and characteristics of a user is easier as a simple algorithm can determine almost everything about the user, if needed.
Unnecessary hype and after-effects:
The viral side of social media platforms is not always profitable and optimistic. For instance, a wide range of teenagers get their videos, music, and more viral after they post it on the platform. This creates an over-hyped community who are keen on exploiting the contents, thereby impacting the creator in a negative way. Despite of the exposure, the teenagers go through mental traumas and fall outs due to the negative comments and feedbacks they get in the platform, ultimately leading to depression and mental anxiety.
Pros of Social Media
However, there are some perks or pros of social media too:
Faster reach for a cause:
The information that are uploaded or posted on social media platforms get viral in no time. This aids to a faster reach to the needful perspectives such as posts for raising crowdfunds for a better cause, influencing posts amass, particularly.
A lawful ally:
The law enforcement can make a good use of social media platforms to track down criminals and citizens who disobey to abide by the law. As per the survey, 85% of the police departments make use of social media to solve crimes.
A potential venture for job-seekers, business owners and entrepreneurs:
Social media helps to connect diverse group of people in one place. As of that, the job-seekers and business owners can list the vacancies in the platform and connect to the needy ones easily. Also, the entrepreneurs who are looking to flourish and market their business ideas or scopes can easily make a post about it and upload it, as it gets viral in no time.
Face-to-Face interaction:
The major advantage of social media was the face-to-face interaction in this hard time of pandemic. As people weren’t allowed to go outside, they made the substantial usage of the platform to connect to their loved ones, even though being a virtual experience.
A good prospect for economy:
The social media platforms have created a major outreach in the industry, creating enormous job opportunities worldwide. For instance, Facebook added $227 billion and 4.5 million jobs to the global economy in 2014, Snapchat got valued at $24 billion when New York Stock Exchange began its stock trading, in the very day.
Introvert’s prowess for socialization:
As the platform aids virtual interaction and engagement, the introvert community appraise the social media for its virtual functionality. The people who are shy and confident to be social at slightest can make use of the platform for boost their confidence and showcase their perceptions, expertise, and more just by using the social media.
Social Change:
Social media can influence a mass of people and get their reach massively, bringing a change in social norms and values. As the people can speak openly about their perception and initiate campaigns to reduce stigmas that surround mental health and social disabilities, thereby bringing a social change in a shorter time frame.
Wider reach to resources:
People who lack academic background but are enthusiastic to learn and grow, can make the optimum usage of social media to know about the latest trends of educational resources and learn from them. Furthermore, as the platform consists of greater libraries of resources within, a large mass of people can benefit from it in spite of their frail financial standards.
