Technology has brought us many great things and growing up in the generation where social media is at its peak, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat seem to be those great things. Or so I thought. So you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing you do? Check your phone. You upload a picture and does the “like” count matter? You have 2,000 plus followers, do you know them all? I have to admit I was the poster child for social media addiction. I would check my phone constantly, I would check how many likes or comments my pictures got, I had an obnoxious follower count. It wasn’t until I became a college student in the real world that I realized how little those things matter and it’s pretty common that these are the things teens and young adults worry about on a daily basis.

No, I am not saying all social media is bad, social media has done a lot of amazing things actually. It connects you with people from all over, family, friends, your old neighbor, etc. Technology has made this portal of communication a good thing and we have made it a bad thing.

Social media…the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Let’s start with the good; Myspace was created in 2003 and brought a whole new meaning to the social aspect of media. Finally, a place designed to share your thoughts, pictures, life, and so much more with the people who you were friends with. Soon after that Facebook created. In 2004 Mark Zuckerberg founded the new social networking service, a website that didn’t even measure up to Myspace. Facebook soon became the main source of connections. Family members and friends from all over the world could connect through this website. Facebook opened the door for the new generation of social media. Social media like Myspace, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc created a new world for people to share their lives with others. This way of connecting with someone in seconds amazed many became a huge trend in teenagers all the way through the elders.

As there is a plus side to social media there is a downside as well, the bad. Since people go about sharing videos, pictures, and thoughts on their social media sites they begin to be a risk for things regarding their privacy. For teenagers, the threat of predators is lurking for the weak links. In many situations, a predator has posed as a young teenager and has fooled a child into meeting them which leads to cases of abductions and kidnapping. With teenagers being the weaker link on the social media platforms, it gives a lot of room for them to be exposed to inappropriate things like violence and pornography. With older people their privacy is also at risk when they share many things about their lives and don’t filter it they become targets. For example, sharing the days you will be out of town on vacation indicates that nobody will be home, a perfect time for a robbery to occur. This privacy factor affects people who are in the workforce. Sharing all about your life on the internet isn’t always the best idea if you have a job that can check your accounts. An employer can see a lot of the things you think are private, you underage drinking, you skipping work for a beach trip, etc. Don’t believe me? Check out this fact, “Despite privacy concerns, only 25 percent of Facebook users utilize privacy settings.” -searchenginejournal.com. This means that only one-fourth of Facebook users protect their privacy and the other three-fourths are at risk because the internet is not always as private as you think.

The ugliness in social media lays within the factors of productivity, addiction, and bullying. While you’re at work or studying do you hear social media calling your name? Social media can divert you from many tasks, checking up on friends and family or updating them on your life is fun and entertaining but it can cause a lot of issues. Jeffbullas.com states that “The average Facebook user spends 40 minutes a day on the platform.” This means constantly checking your Facebook racks up during the day, this is time you could’ve spent studying, paying attention in class, or working. This constant checking leads to issues like addiction. Many people have become routine to check their social media, it’s the first thing they do when they wake up and the last thing they do before they go to bed. This constant checking up on other people’s lives can make one start comparing their lives to someone else, this leads to things like narcissism, depression, the fear of missing out. This three things just a few of the many issues with social media addiction. The ugliness of narcissism and proving to others that you live a perfect life to the depression of feeling like your life doesn’t measure up to someone else’s. The fear of missing out and bullying go hand and hand, this mostly affects teenagers and young adults. When there is constant updating and posting it can make some feel left out and create some issues, like bullying. Dosomething.org says that “nearly 43 percent of kids have been bullied online. One in four has had it happen more than once.” This means social media platforms have increased bullying and have opened a new window of opportunity for bullies. Many teenagers have the ability to post what they want and this can be very harmful to others, bullies target people and hide behind social media to embarrass, harass, and upset others. This is a going on every day to kids everywhere and has become a serious problem sometimes resulting in death. These are just a fear ugly factors about social media use that shed some light on the negative effects of it.

As an active social media user, I have learned about the good, the bad, and the ugly effects of it. It’s important to use social media is a positive way, it’s growing every day and only you can control how you use it. Technology has brought us many amazing things but learning how to use it in a healthy positive way is the main thing we should be focusing on as it grows and grows.