Social Media: A Problem (Opinion Piece 2 Assignment)

Social Media Szajnzinger March 22, 2019

Social media today has become all inclusive, everyone uses it if one wants to be a part of society it is necessary. Many studies show that social media hurts more than it helps, Facebook, as of December 31, 2018, there are 2.32 billion monthly active users. Instagram has 1 billion monthly active users as of June 2018. Social media is pervasive and living without it for the younger generation is difficult at best and debilitating at worst. Many jobs require the use of social media, whether it’s the ability to contact coworkers or a business to advertise and spread information. However, using social media has been shown to reduce factual news knowledge, decrease time socializing with friends and family, and an increase in mental health issues, especially depression.

The absence of social media in a person’s life has been shown to have several positives. People who deactivate Facebook are more likely to spend their time with friends and family, and less time-consuming information such as news. While less consumption of news is not overtly positive, as stated in The Welfare Effects of Social Media, “Deactivation significantly reduced polarization of views on policy issues and a measure of exposure to polarizing news.” The worlds political climate is currently filled by extreme views, but without the avenue of Facebook and other social media, people are less likely to both have them and act upon these views. Hate crimes by extreme hate groups such as Neo-Nazis would lessen, and extreme anger from the far left will reduce as well. The correlation between the amount of time-consuming polarizing news is well documented by The Welfare Effects of Social Media. Reducing social media usage helps people become more attuned to their surroundings, and not obsess over their differing political views. In addition, the mental health of individuals has been shown to deteriorate in correlation with the amount of time spent on social media. However, knowledge of political issues is shown to deteriorate in comparison to before. The correlation between social media and mental health issues could also go in the other direction, in which depressed people might be heavily using them because of their issues. This is still likely to reduce as people will concentrate on other aspects of their life.

The effect of information overload on Facebook and Twitter is also an issue. In comparison to television, the news on social media is a congealing mass of unimportance. As Luke O'Neil states on Esquire, “Rapid-fire social media overload is like a series of quick concussive blows to the head, where everything is flattened into a gray gruel of information, and nothing stands out.” A variety of news articles are spread out in a Twitter feed, and a user will see all of them, which results in numbness to various negative and positive news. Rather than allowing a user to process emotions, the user just scrolls down one more page, endlessly perusing information that becomes a time consumer rather than news. Desensitization due to digital content is an issue that has been occurring for many years at this point, and the workaround is to avoid consuming news through the medium of social media.

The use of social media is still necessary for some respects, however reducing time on it and taking breaks will help people rediscover healthier parts of their life. Reducing time on social media will provide the means to have fewer polarizing views by users, a healthier mindset, and more well-adjusted reactions to the news consumed.

http://web.stanford.edu/~gentzkow/research/facebook.pdf

https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/health/facebook-psychology-health.html

https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/health/a13083796/twitter-mental-health/