The Social Media Impact On Society

Throughout my childhood, social media was not an issue. Nobody got displeased about not being able to hang out with a group of friends, anxiety and depression were not as popular as they are now, and it didn't matter how you looked to other people. People were just doing their own thing and taking pictures through a camera lens. Don't get me wrong there are many benefits to using social media as well, but sadly there are more negative drawbacks. Social media was introduced to Generation Z at very young ages. The ages of Generation Z range from 10-25 years old. Holy moly, that is my generation. Do you ever get terrified about how advanced technology will be in the future? Cause I do. I want to describe to you what it can do to you and how you can control it.

Here's an Example

Throughout my own experience with social media and how it affects me in certain ways, I'd love to give you a little perspective

I was introduced to Snapchat, Instagram, and Youtube in 2013, I was 12 years old. I had an iPod 4. My mom and I were at an oil change place when she had told me about Instagram and Snapchat. She told me that it would be an awesome way to explore other photos. Oh, I was so psyched. I absolutely loved taking pictures with it and my mom knew. Originally I used the iPod 4 to take photos (very cringey photos, might I add), play games, and watch YouTube videos. Oh, I had no idea how prevalent social media would become, nor that I would be using it as a tool in my career. As the years went on and technology became more advanced, I practiced editing photos for hours with a variety of different apps, it took an unhealthy turn as I began obsessing over trying to craft a falsely perfected presentation of myself online. As I was getting more self-conscious, Snapchat made me unbelievably so aware of what other people were doing. This led to me having anxiety because I didn't think I was "cool" enough to hang out with the "cool" kids or I wasn't worth anyone's time because I wasn't invited to a movie night or a bonfire. Just constantly overthinking, keeping track of these apps making it a chore, and getting all the reassurance I needed. But did I need that validation? I had an addiction, but I didn't recognize its toxicity until the summer going into my Sophomore year of college.

The popularity of Different Social Media Accounts

How many social media accounts do you have in total? Those may include: Twitter, Tinder, Bumble, Tumblr, Linkedin, VSCO, and the list goes on. If you can't think of any social media accounts that you have, wow you are killing it right now. Anywho, when you get the total amount of accounts, now think specifically about which ones you check either every half an hour, hourly, daily, or weekly. According to an article I found, Gen Z has the most monthly users on Snapchat (42.0 million), Tiktok (37.3 million), and Instagram (33.3 million). These apps have consistently become more popular throughout the years to easily communicate with other people in a variety of ways on a daily basis. All of these apps let users express themselves not only to share their profession, major of study, political views, and religious beliefs but also allow them to find other people that share the same traits.

How do algorithms work exactly?

Every social media app has an algorithm. An algorithm tends to evaluate our virtual personality based on where we go, what we are interested in, and what we buy. All this data gathered forms a digital footprint, which we all leave behind all over the internet. IT giants use our footprint to keep our attention and increase the time spent on their services and apps. These bombard us with targeted ads and any information they need to keep us lured in and not give us an opportunity to take a break from the technology itself. All these algorithms form photos and videos that we all enjoy, and what we agree with. These form a tunnel vision. Tunnel vision is a disease in which a person loses the ability of peripheral vision and sees only a narrow strip of his or her surroundings. As a result of this, we all lose the complexity of the world; our vision diminishes to this reality formed by the internet. All of these things that we see on each social media network are formed by algorithms and these form a vicious cycle with what we are excluded from seeing, and what influences future opinions. It is hard to find the "right" answer on the internet nowadays, nobody can really trust each other because everyone is excluded from seeing what they want to see.

Mental Health Effects

There have been many surveys and interviews conducted to get a perspective of how social media impacts someone. Surveys and interviews conducted by McKinsey indicated differences among generations, with Gen Z reporting the least positive life outlook, including lower levels of emotional and social well-being than older generations. One in four Gen Z respondents reported feeling more emotionally distressed (25 percent), almost double the levels reported by millennial and Gen X respondents (13 percent each), and more than triple the levels reported by baby boomer respondents (8 percent). The COVID-19 pandemic has also boosted this challenge as well. In the McKinsey sample, Gen Z respondents were more likely to report having been diagnosed with a behavioral health condition (for example, substance use or mental disorder) than either Gen Xers or baby boomers. Gen Z respondents were also two to three times more likely than other generations to report thinking about, planning, or attempting suicide in the 12-month period spanning late 2019 to late 2020. If this is starting to affect Gen Z on a whole different level, how do you think it will impact the generation below Gen Z?

Taking Control

With the pandemic influencing social media users to use it more than ever, it is time to take charge. There are many things surrounding us that we don't realize when we use social media as a habit. These habits may include when we are bored, trying to ignore reality, being lazy, or just checking our phone every couple of minutes for no reason. There are many ways to take more control of the app itself. Putting your phone on do not disturb, turning your phone off for a couple of hours of the day, turning off notifications, putting those addicting apps aside from your home screen, and pushing aside the temptation to go on those apps. Yes, it can be surprisingly hard to do these things, but if we push ourselves to do better for ourselves and society, the world will be a better place.