My Opinion on Social Media

In my opinion, social media is corrupting our society by creating unlikely high standards of beauty; like losing weight and having lots of muscle, it also brings more freedom to targeting and victimizing people, as well as being invasive of privacy and safety. On social networking platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. there appears to be high and impractical body standards for women and men. So many photos are photo-shopped and made to look “perfect” and sometimes can put out the message “If you don’t resemble this, you’re not beautiful or not acceptable”.

There’s also the opportunity for cyber bullying to occur. If you’re being bullied at school, normally you can go home to escape the harassment, but nowadays people will send cruel messages and post horrific things about you online. Depending on what other people post about you and how many people see it or believe it, it can complicate and cause havoc in people’s lives. As a victim of bullying, this reason I feel especially supports my opinion. I’ve had fake websites created about me; making fun of how I look or do certain things, and have been targeted by many of my peers severely over private or direct messaging. Social media can hold false information and be misleading, as well as give out too much information if you’re not careful, which can put you in grave danger.

Online networking may cause many people to feel depressed, dissatisfied and/or insecure with themselves or the life they’re leading, as if they are not as happy, confident, and organized in their living and themselves as many others seem over their statuses and pictures on the internet. Likewise, people can feel dejected and envy towards others who get more likes or have more friends or followers than they do. It oppresses people and fuels the desire for attention and acceptance by others online, additionally establishing the comparison to other people’s lives and yours. Someone may appear to direct a perfect life, but there’s always something that a person can be struggling with, whether it has to do with a close friend or relative, self confidence and mental or physical health, something financially, or just a lot of stress from work, schooling, or upcoming events.

Social media can take away minutes and even hours from our daily lives and productivity. It’s a distraction and slows us down and prevents us from doing work or even daily essentials; such as eating, sleeping, exercising, and educating ourselves. I feel that we should spend less time on social media and spend more time doing things we truly enjoy and spending time with family and friends, instead of just texting them or calling them. Not only will it benefit and improve mental and physical health, spending less time on the internet will help us live our lives to the fullest and increase performance in more intelligent, creative and imaginative things; for instance visual arts, music, writing, and academics.

Now, with all this being said, I'm guilty of succumbing to the majority of things I've just listed. I run a fan account on a social media platform and have hardly ever received any hate. It may just be one of the greatest things that has happened to me. I've made many friends and have helped and inspired so many people, it's honestly what keeps me going. I guess what I'm trying to say is when social media is used by the right people and directed to appeal to the correct audiences, it really isn't that bad, as long as it's being used reasonably and appropriately.