Social Media and the Role it Plays in our Lives

Social media plays such a vital role in our lives now. We can’t imagine life without it. This has become a global phenomenon and still widely spread. Social media is a medium that reaches people all around the globe. People are so connected these days; it is true that in the last 15 years, social media has taken the world by storm. Not so long ago was life still black and white? It was still a life where cell phones have not taken our lives completely and where we still use telephones to connect. The internet was used restrictedly, but this was just 10 -15 years back, and till then, social media and the internet has taken our lives by storm. It is estimated that in the next 15 -20 years, everyone will have access to the internet.

When we talk about the internet, we can’t ignore the social media sites be it Facebook or Instagram. These two sites have taken the world by storm and are conquering both the youth and the older generations. How social media gained popularity.

Social media – How it all began

When the social media sites of hi5 and Orkut was created and launched, it didn’t impact the people too much because at that point the internet was not introduced in the cell phones at a cheap rate. The internet was accessible only through laptops and computers. Although these sites like hi5 and Orkut gained popularity, the youth and older generation alike didn’t get addicted. The first internet services introduced in phones was in 1996, but the internet services were limited and really expensive, and this carried on till the year 2004 -05 when the internet services started becoming more popular in cell phones, it was around this year 2004 that the internet sensation Facebook was launched too and there’s no looking back.

With the introduction of cheaper internet rates and Facebook in 2004, the internet became a household name, and its popularity isn’t taking aback by anything since then. Let’s take a look at youth and the social media

Youth and Social Media 

 Previously the internet was accessible to people, but it didn’t play such a pivotal role in their life. Yes, it connected everyone, but people would use the internet only using email, but with the dawn of Facebook and other social sites, it has completely taken away the time of the youth who spends about 5 -6 hours on the social media sites such Facebook, Instagram, and other such addictive sites. Facebook was created and used in 2006-07, and Instagram was launched in 2010 and has gotten the whole world hooked on them, and this is not slowing down thousands of people are creating their Facebook and Instagram account so as we’re talking.

Effect of social media 

There is a widespread effect of social media, especially Instagram and Facebook. The most common negative effect is addiction.

Addiction 

The youth especially are addicted to these social media site, and social media control every aspect of their lives. They spend so much time on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and the latest addictive site TikTok. It can be assumed that social media has more addictive quality than cigarettes and alcohol, and this is alarming.

Sleeping Pattern 

Another effect of social media is unhealthy sleeping patterns. With the youth becoming increasingly addicted, they have unhealthy sleeping patterns. Because the youth use their social media until the late wee hours of the night, they generally lose their sleep. The social media sites are not only addictive, but it also affects the sleeping patterns because the youth would use the social media sites until the late hours of the night they generally fall asleep with their phones and wake up the next day holding on to their phones.

Depression

Another side effect of social media is poor mental health. It is found in studies that the excessive use of social media results in poor mental health and poor mood, which leads to numerous mood swings. It is found that the more time you spend on the internet or social media sites, the more it has adverse effects on your mood.

Unrealistic Expectation 

Because of the pressure to look good and present you in the best way at all time, this creates unrealistic expectations. For example, Instagram is a site where you upload your photos so generally the youth or the older generation would like to upload only photos where they look good, or they would like to upload photos of places they’ve visited. This instant need to look good and present yourself and your lifestyle in a grand manner lead to harming ways in which the individual either spends so much money to look good and spend money on their trips just so to look good on social sites and impress their followers on Instagram.

Ruins Body Image 

If you scrutinize Instagram, you’ll see that the celebrities play a major role in it and the celebs would post a picture of their perfect body and rich lifestyle and this creates such a disparity between the celebs and the common man. The common man starts building negative body image, and they would also like to become more like the celebs, and this harms them more than anything else.

Briefly 

It is therefore important to curb our needs and use of social media. If we use social media in moderation then there are no ways we’ll get addicted to it, and we can perform our daily functions without many troubles because social media really mess up with our daily functionality instead of doing our homework we spend our time on the social sites and this creates havoc to our daily lives.

Finally

To conclude, it is important to maintain moderation in life, be it in everything we do. So the same goes to social sites if we spend around 1 hour or at the most two hours on the social sites this doesn’t hamper with our daily lives and routine and it is good to be connected too.

Author Bio

Walter Moore is a notable management consultant and digital marketing expert. He is an experienced digital marketer and has helped e-commerce businesses in all niches gain with his effective marketing strategies and guidance.