Social media has become a lethal construct of today's generation, affecting human behavior in a more negative way than positive. Media platforms influence attitudes and behaviors; impacting all areas of people's lives.
Whether that impact be good or bad, there is always the conclusion that the impact is huge.
Although it is a great resource to share and connect with friends and family, it still does more harm than good.
Loss Of Individuality And Self-Importance
Social media encourages a loss of individualism from the want of being accepted and following the "cool, new trend." Society uses apps, like TikTok or Instagram, to impress their "friends" or "followers", and to only exaggerate the good side of their lives to the public.
The uncanny need for complete strangers to be impressed by one's faulty life is something that only the current generation could be able to understand.
Likes are seen as a newer and blinder form of acceptance, because it is one of the few media interaction platforms where feedback is given to a person's specific event in their life.
For this reason, many people give off a certain persona to feel more accepted because they believe there is no other way an individual would want to be acknowledged.
The impact on human behavior impacts one's thought on their self-importance. Many users become convinced that they are inferior to another person due to the number of followers they have or the amount of likes they receive.
This behavior is developed through the excessive usage of apps and the self-indulgence of taking the internet too seriously, causing teenagers to develop their own social skills, self-capability, a competitive mindset, and wanting to be the "best" from the crowd.
This toxic mindset will not lead to anywhere beneficial and damage the reputation of oneself.
This unhealthy behavior will climb out from the internet into real world problems, changing in-person relationships for some.
Impossible Beauty Standards
The beauty standards social media represents is also a major part of the younger generations' lives. A depiction of the ideal "beauty" is seen all over the media; Kardashians, Instagram models, fitness gurus, etc.
These people are seen to have the perfect beauty; beautiful face, fit body, smooth skin, etc.
A young girl or boy will find themselves drawing comparisons, to find out what's wrong with their face and/or body.
When drawing comparisons, what one loves about themselves is never the main focus on. This certain mindset leads them into wanting a change; plastic surgery, eating disorders, etc.
These influences guide the younger generations into believing that that is the only "acceptable" way to look, going through the most drastic processes to achieve "the look."
Cyberbullying
With the desire to be accepted throughout the entire spectrum of social media, cyberbullying is a major factor into feeling accepted by users. Many people believe jokes they make about others make them look more desirable, not considering the feelings of the person who they are attacking.
This is a perfect example of the bandwagon effect.
People do or believe something simply based on the number of other people who appear to do or believe the same thing.
With receiving just a little bit of recognition of their "hate comment" or "subtweet" feeds into the toxic behavior of making it acceptable to be rude to others. This small form of cyber-bullying builds a strong foundation into the more violent, dangerous world of the internet.
Social media allows a platform for anyone to say what they want — emphasis on hate crimes, or to spew out hatred.
Social media influences society into shaping our future in a certain way. We are inclined to social influence without any control, but being aware of the situation opens up new possibilities for physical and mental health mediation.
Our behavior correlates with how we think, where the behavior is influenced by social media; completely rearranging an uncorrupted mental state of mind. The key of the debacle is moderating the usage of social media by people because they often lose themselves in what's going on in the internet.
