Technology has drastically evolved over the last two decades. Along with the evolution of technology has come social media outlets. The most common social media apps are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Tik Tok. Platforms such as Tik Tok and YouTube have exploded recently, and the older platforms have not lost any steam.
In fact, as of 2019 over 70 percent of adults are using social media platforms according to Pew Research. The increasing number of adults using social media platforms has allowed for many different opportunities for these platforms to expand. The expansion is often thought of as positive in nature. However, there are some negatives that have come from the growth of social media.
Positives of Social Media Use
- Quick Access to Information
Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have become more and more popular for quick and easy access to information. There are a lot of individuals that use social media, including very reputable news sources and companies. With the growth of social media, companies have started to create accounts and use these platforms to provide users with information. The younger generations have become much more reliant on the internet, and these companies have viewed these platforms as an opportunity to expand their audiences.
Not only are reputable news companies reporting news to platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Sports reporters have become very reliant on social media outlets to relay information to the public. Many sports reporters such as Adam Schefter and Adrian Wojnarowski have millions of followers that rely on them to update them about news on their favorite sports teams.
- Online Learning/Problem Solving
Learning and problem solving has become much easier with social media as well. YouTube is a very prominent social media platform when it comes to online learning and problem solving. This platform is used for creators to upload many different kinds of videos for various audiences. Lately, YouTube has become more of an entertainment platform. However, there are thousands of educational videos that can be found on YouTube.
School curriculum has evolved and is much different than what it was 20 to 30 years ago. This makes it hard to help our kids with their homework at times. This is where YouTube could potentially provide assistance. This allows our kids to better understand what they are learning in school, and it also provides them with a resource to use for problem solving when faced with problems that they face.
- Increased Advertisement Opportunities
Platforms such as YouTube and Instagram have become a great way for brands to advertise different new products. YouTube allows for brands to advertise many different things through their ad program. YouTube has million of creators, and they have even more people that watch the videos created by those creators. These videos reach a large variety of people and present a great opportunity for companies to expand their customer base.
Instagram is also used as an advertisement platforms. Brands will reach out to individuals with large followings and ask them to be a brand ambassador. This requires the individual to post a certain number of pictures/videos to Instagram advertising their product to millions of their followers.
- New Careers
YouTube has been the main platform that has opened up a lot of career opportunities. YouTube pays their creators by placing ads on their videos, and there are thousands of creators that are able to make a living off of creating YouTube videos. YouTube has also popularized podcasting, which is like a long form YouTube video where individuals talk about various different topics.
Negatives of Social Media Use
- Addicting
This is a negative that has come from the evolution of social media. There is so much content that is being put out on various social media platforms that it has become severely addictive. Social media is consuming teenagers and young adults, and it has led to them being addicted to their phones.
- Fear of Missing Out
The evolution of social media has led to younger individuals to post about everything that is going on in their lives. This can lead to people feeling like they are missing out. Whether it be missing out on a party, or an event, or even a popular television show. The addiction that comes with social media use effects this fear of missing out and is often referred to as “FOMO”.
- Bullying
This is by far the biggest negative effect of the evolution of the internet and social media. Bullying has become an extremely prevalent issue in society and it has only been heightened by social media. In the past bullying existed but it could only occur when individuals were face to face. Now bullying can occur at all times via the internet.
The physical nature of bullying has subsided from what it used to be in the past. Now the popular form of bullying is to mentally hurt someone. Negative posts about someone or something can affect someone’s psyche, and can completely dominate someone’s thoughts. This form of “cyberbullying” plays off of the addiction that accompanies social media, and can lead to much worse pain than any physical bullying could present.