Social Media is an outlet of communication that spreads news and allows people to connect and interact daily. Over the past couple of years, people have used Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram as a way to share pictures, post open thoughts, and entertainment with memes and videos. There is always a downside to the good, though. People also use social media as an outlet to body shame, attack and expose people’s dirty laundry. Recent events have proved that social media is now leading to unexpected and bad things.
Last week, Kim Kardashian West and her husband used the newest social media craze, Snapchat, to expose singer Taylor Swift. Recently the singer claimed that she did not know that Kanye West was going to use her name in a song defaming her as “that b*tch.” The snapchat exposed a phone call where Swift agreed to letting West use her name in the song. The problem is that people worldwide used social media to pick sides — tweeting #TeamTaylor and #TeamKim. Even other celebrities tweeted commenting on the drama. There are seriously more things going on in the world that people should pay attention to instead. Social media should not cover the petty drama of celebrities.
Following that drama, Kat Von D, a makeup icon and tattoo artist, used Instagram to tell the world that Jeffree Star was racist and inappropriate which led to her not wanting to associate with him. The star even said she wanted to remove her makeup named after him, from her line. This was peaceful but still unnecessary.
The newest app out there, which can be considered an outdoor social media app, is "Pokemon Go." The app brings people to locations to capture Pokemon. Usually, there is a big group of people there to socialize with or meet and it is fun. There have been cases where that is not what happens. In Florida, a man shot players of the game because he thought that they were burglars. This would be the common assumption for people who saw people creeping around your private property. Other places, people have been lured to dead bodies and one hit by a car crossing the street. These are downsides to the app, but overall the game has been pretty safe.
Playboy model Dani Mathers used snapchat to body shame a woman at a Los Angeles Gym. The model photographed the woman on Snapchat while she was nude in the locker room and shamed her for being overweight. Shaming women are uncalled for and disrespectful as a whole, especially to the world to see. Women should uplift women and instead of shaming them. Mathers could have offered to work out with the woman instead of exposing her.
It is common to see social media that is supposed to be fun used to for bad things. Social media also leads to self-harm due to the lack of attention from people. Around the world, we should not use social media to attack, expose or harm people. It has gone too far. I hope that there is a solution that limits the amount of harm that is done with the apps we love on our phone and instead use them for a good purpose.
