Adverse Effects of Social Media on Users

Social media is now an unavoidable necessity to almost all people around the globe. The use of such websites, and apps have exponentially grown in years and it’s still climbing on. It’s useful in many ways as these have helped a lot in communication, sharing ideas, sharing news, getting news from far remote places, creating new friends from across the globe, a tool for research and studies, and the list goes on. Though it has many advantages, there are disadvantages too. Accept or not, like my grandma says every coin comes with two sides.

If we look around we could only see people with their heads down to the small screen of smartphones whether it’s in an office, restaurant, our homes, park, etc., it’s that common nowadays. So basically everyone including me is addicted to this or we can say we are bound to this. Lil kids now know how to open a smart device and play YouTube videos. So these social media apps have that much penetrated into our lives that we cannot throw them away. So many studies have found that the excessive use of these has negative effects both mentally and physically. We might have already experienced at least one negative effect. We know and we ignore in most cases, but in today’s world, it is important to find quality time from all these apps and portals. If you find any of the below is affecting you, then you should consider the amount of time you spend on social media.  Sleep

1. Sleep

Many of us use smartphones till late at night either chatting in WhatsApp, messenger, etc. or scrolling posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, etc.,. Also, it might be the first thing you see in the morning when you wake up too. Many studies have found that excessive use of social media during the night times has affected our sleeping patterns. Scrolling through social media while lying on the bed can increase the length and frequency of sleep disturbance- studies say. All this will end up in sluggishness and dullness in the morning which will affect your work and daily routines and eating habits. So try to put aside your phone at least 30minutes before you go to sleep.

2. Addiction

Have you seen how people get mad when their data connection or Wifi got off or blocked ? Yes it’s more addictive than alcohol and cigarettes. When its comes to addiction the first few names comes to your mind might be Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, SnapChat, Youtube Etc., Hope you don’t have a day where you didn’t check any of your social media accounts. You and me and all people have an addiction to this, but it varies from person to person. Addiction actually steal your productive time and may be affect your mood too. So try to use your social media accounts when you are really free and try to keep it aside while you work or when you are doing something important.

3. FOMO

You might ‘ve seen this term whenever you search for adverse effects of social media, this is one of the most common effects of prolonged use of social media. FOMO stands for Fear Of Missing Out. It is a form of anxiety that you get when you’re scared of missing out on a positive experience or emotions that someone else is getting. The more you engage in social media, chances are high that you might be a victim of this anxiety. Watching someone else having more fun than you, causes your anxiety levels high which in turn causes FOMO.

4. Affects Brain and its activity

Many studies have found that the use of social media affects our brain activity in many different ways. It reduces our ability to concentrate, multitasking abilities, stimulates false triggers etc., You might be now thinking how it affects your Multitasking ability. During work or any important activity, you might check your facebook, instagram or whatsapp. So initially you might be checking only one of the social media, but actually you end up in checking all of the social media accounts you have and ends up in wasting much of your work time. So in this context we are actually losing our concentration as well as multitasking abilities. once you continuously does this, your brain constantly trigger you to check it in  intervals.

5. Affects your wallet/ shopping pattern

The advertisements in your social media sites are personalised according to your search history. Constantly watching them wherever the place you visit will ultimately makes you to have it. Companies invest a lot of money in social media marketing to make you buy their products. Studies have proved it. We all follow celebrities or certain brands we like in Facebook, Instagram, twitter etc, when we surf through it the user might get obsessed with the many things they see, and make him/her to have it for themselves too. These all have actually lead to higher spending . The use of Credit card/Credit facilities have rapidly grown in the last 10 year and its growing exponentially.

6. Depression & Anxiety

This is more common in teenagers and youngsters. The more you use social media the more you absorb the details of your counterparts details this sometimes make you feel inferior, which causes depression. Studies have proved that individuals who spend more than two hours a day are likely to be either under small depression or anxiety in any mean, which results in poor mental health. Scientists suggests that you need to use social media for only for 30 minutes a day. it’s actually unacceptable I hope, but we can reduce the use by controlling the time that we spend on these sites and apps.

7. Relationships

Its proven and everyone knows that excess use of social media will adversely affects your relationships whether its family, friends or your near ones. We are living in a world where everything is connected to the internet, so we are connected 24×7. The excess use of social media will reduce the real life conversations. many of us don’t have quality time to spend with our family or friends to have a real good conversation nowadays because everybody is down with something on their smartphone and most probably he/she will be on social media

These are some of the main troubles that caused by excess/prolonged use of social media. There are many other physical effects too for this. In this connected world it’s hard to stop using these too. It has its positive side too. If you are suffering from any of the above problems you really need to check your usage. You cannot stop but you can control the time you spend on this. Make a decision that you could only spent a little time on this, stop using mobile phone for at least 30minutes before you sleep. Make rules to check the usage of social media while in office or home. So technically you have many ways to check your usage and have a good and sound mental and physical health.

“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots”– Sir Albert Einstein

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