How is social media affecting people?

Wake up - pick up mobile phones - open social media - scroll and scroll!

This has become the general routine of youth in the contemporary world. Unfortunately, in this life of digitisation, humans spend a lot of time scrolling through social media posts, not considering how this will affect them in longevity.

Whether commuting to work or in between breaks at work, we have successfully credited a significant amount of time to use social media platforms. Moreover, several recent studies have suggested that daily average time spent on social media is rising.

The pandemic has led to an increase in social media’s usage. With the work from home culture and social distancing rules, people have now majorly replaced social media to socialise and discarded meeting real people in real time.

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However, extensive use of social media platforms has various effects on one’s mental, physical, and social health. It is significant to analyse how one is using social media forums for a better life in longevity.

Let us understand how social media hampers one’s overall wellbeing:

• Fake beauty standards: Social media has given rise to physical insecurities among youth. Platforms like Instagram has got an influencer culture. These influencers and brands promote stereotypical standards of beauty, making people anxious about their body image.
• The mirage of filtered life: Social media is not the real world. People post their photos heavily edited to hide marks, make themselves look thinner and taller. There are hundreds of trending filters that make the skin glossier and more flawless. Such a culture of filters is creating a mirage of flawless skin.
• Show off inflicts victimisation: Social media is a world where people only highlight the best part of their lives. Someone got a car, or someone got an appraisal, or someone is travelling the world. They do not post their life struggles. This can make others feel that it’s only them who are suffering the most- which in turn causes stress.

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• Massive amount of negativity: Social media is gradually becoming the primary source for any news. Since most millennials and Gen Z people are on social media, many news organisations now use these platforms to deliver the news. It was observed that because of COVID-19, many people got off social media as they couldn’t handle consistent negative news about deaths and related problems due to the virus.

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• Echo-chambers and half-baked knowledge: People from the right conservative ideology and left-leaning liberals, both have hundreds of groups, followed by thousands of people. Unfortunately, people have started relying on such ideologically biased pages as their source of information, thus, framing opinions on half-baked knowledge.
• Online bullying: People are being bullied and cancelled on social media. Suppose a person’s thoughts don’t adhere to the new flourishing “politically correct” culture. In that case, they get mentally tortured on these platforms and many times their accounts are deleted from the respective platform.

Bottomline

People do not realise in their day to day lives how extensive use of social media is dangerous for them. Thus, it is crucial for everyone to judge what’s right and what’s not. And, most importantly, become resolute not to spend hours and hours scrolling and staring at the feed.

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