Social media is, without a doubt, one of the most significant phenomena of the 21st century. It is used by, at the very least, four billion people. If we do the math and consider the population of the Earth as eight billion, we will soon realize that more than half of the world is on social media!
But the number of people on social media is not at all the most striking figure. By all means, the most striking figure is the average number of hours the social media user remains on social platforms – two to three! Take out hours for sleeping, working, and commuting, those two to three hours become half your life!
Considering how much social media is talked about throughout the world, it makes its way into discussions a lot. Many discuss the impact it is having on us.
If you too are part of these discussions, then you are lucky to be here as today we will be discussing the disadvantages of social media.
Know that we are not saying that you should abandon interacting with people online and unsubscribe from Xfinity internet; all we are saying is that you should not use social platforms excessively.
Lack of In-person Interactions
As explained earlier, social media has taken over more than half of our free time. The time we take out for social media is replacing the time we put into something else. One of these things is in-person interactions.
Social media users start having the false idea that, if they are spending time with other people over social media, they are getting the same benefits as they would if they were spending time with those people in person.
However, that is simply not true. There is a lot of research that says that even getting a hug from another person boosts your mental health.
It reduces your depression and anxiety. After all, we, as humans, need touch and in-person interactions to feel like we belong somewhere and are not alone in this scary world.
Dearth of Sports
Gone are the days when we excessively used to play in the fields and have fun jumping around from one place to another. Now, all of the kids in our neighbourhoods are playing games on social media like 8-Ball pool and Magic swap puzzle.
What this does is that it has taken all the physical fitness out of us as we do find time to play sports.
When our physical health, so does our mental health. After all, your mind is the most important part of your body and what affects your body also has an impact on your mind.
An advantage of sports is that it helps kids learn how to compete in a healthy way.
They learn how to be graceful while winning and steadfast while losing. In so many ways, they also learn how to think on the spot in a prompt and correct manner in high-pressure situations of high stakes.
Lack Of Sleep
A lot of research has been published on the fact that social media, indeed, is causing kids to sleep lesser.
When kids lie down in bed to “sleep”, they actually just proceed to use social media.
As there is normally no supervision happening and no interaction with other people, kids tend to lose the sense of time and keep on surfing on social media for hours and hours on end.
Many people would say that that is pathetic as kids need sleep to function.
Lack of sleep not only affects kids in the short term by making them moody the next day but it also affects them in the long term in a way that these kids end up having developmental issues as well as issues with their academics.
In fact, teachers often complain that they are finding it hard to teach students concepts because they are not as attentive.
Lack of Privacy
Lesser privacy is also an issue that has been highlighted on social media platforms. We let our “Facebook friends” know about things that we would rather keep private not only voluntarily but also involuntarily.
Voluntarily, we let them know about these things by filling out our “About Me” profiles.
Alongside, our data is also shared with others involuntarily through leaks such as Cambridge Analytica.
What was very striking about Cambridge Analytica was that data was leaked from not just any platform but the world’s most predominant social media platform by the name of Facebook!
Wrapping Up
It’s a wrap for now! We hope that this article has enlighted you about the negative impact of social media.
