The Dark Side of Social Media

Social media has taken over each and every individual this way or the other. One cannot deny the fact that the pros of the social media overshadow the dark cons of social media. Social media has led every person in some sort of race where everyone is running after followers, fame, short cuts to success and is ready to pay any price for it. Although the use of social media might depend and vary from person to person but nonetheless the social media instills the negative impact on overall demeanor of an individual. Despite being aware of the dark side of social media, there is no stopping in the growing numbers of social media. Regardless of the insecurities and risks encounter by the young generation, there is nothing that can halt them from falling for the glitters of social media.

“The dark side of social media is that, within seconds, anything can be blown out of proportion and taken out of context. And it’s very difficult not to get swept up in it all.”¬       __Nicola Formichetti (Fashion Director)

Social media appeals a large of number of users globally and around each individual spends 135 minutes of a day on different social networking sites. The gleaming world of social media blurs the line between the reality and artificiality. Out of 2.77 billion most of the users are teenagers who pay the price on count of their lives. According to several studies it is quite evident that increased use of social media is interlinked to depression, anxiety, sleeping disorders, suicidal risks and eating concerns. Out of a long list of dark side of social media, the most affective and worse sides come in the form of disturbed mental health caused by the portrayal of an edited lifestyle on social media.

People tend to showcase their private and personal life on social media by posting their ideas, images and videos in order to receive appreciation. The opposite consequences to this approach lead people to delete or impose the relatively negative outrage on them. This negative feedback makes them unable to accept the criticism that comes their way. As a consequence of this; it deteriorates their mental health which ultimately leads them to the risk of committing suicide. The illusionary world that they desire to reflect on social media mitigates the chances of self-acceptance. They start living and accepting themselves on the perception that is presented by the world.

It is undeniable that dark side of social networking sites brings much more insecurities, shakes self confidence and self-esteem. People are more concerned about their followers, forgetting about their privacy and personal lives. Fake social relation breakdowns, cyber bullying, blackmailing, live suicides through live session by different social media handles are taken as less concerning topics.  The fact that we are very well aware of all pros and cons of the social media, we need to hype both the factors on similar scales in order to save people sinking themselves in the boiling waters to win over the social race.

The problem is associated with the usage of social media rather than itself. The terms ‘reel’ and ‘real’ came into inception only to highlight and differentiate that reel is only something that is edited to an ideal portrayal and real is something that is there as it is. People have crossed the boundaries of these concepts to glamorize their image and reputation through nonfiction scenarios. The notion of being perfect has taken the social media by storm. In reality, no one is perfect and the craze to be perfect has made us less confident to accept our flaws that somewhere down the line are unique in themselves. We have adopted a stagnant approach to look appealing to even those who we don’t know in person.

“We don’t have a choice on whether we do social media; the question is how well we do it?”― Erik Qualman (Author of Socialnomics)

To conclude, we as individuals agree to trap ourselves in the lumps of social media. Social media is just a mask that everybody is willing to put on so that they are socially accepted and admired. It is important to realize the huge portion of our personalities has been afflicted by the massive use of social media. The whole society is paralyzed altogether and has become numbed. In order to bring back the uniqueness that every individual possesses, a potential and serious contemplation is needed against the dark sides of social media. It is important to lessen the psycho-social impact of social networking; we should educate ourselves to understand the difference between real and reel.