Academic Argumentative Essay

Social Media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other new platforms have

become a good source of information and communication. It’s widely used worldwide and lets

people communicate even in the farthest places on earth. The most dominant user of social

media is the youth. We can observe it through our naked eye, and even I have spent more time

scrolling, watching, or sharing daily activities. However, as it has influenced our lives, we can’t

deny that social media has a huge effect on how we live and feel.

According to Damota (2019), the positive side of social media is when people use it for

an appropriate purpose and predetermined goals. Appropriate purpose by sharing information

and intentions of being a good influence on society, especially the youth. We can agree that

information is power, but if it is used inappropriately, it might exploit our lifestyle. When we

spend so much time on social media, real-life relationship begins to suffer. It is because we put

a lot of effort into bragging and deceiving our online friends and followers. Damota (2019) also

cited that several researchers have proposed a new phenomenon called “Facebook

depression”, defined as depression that develops when individuals spend an excessive amount

of time on social media sites and then begin to show signs or symptoms of depression. This is

because we tend to seek attention and self-fulfillment, and nowadays, this attention and self-

fulfillment are sought through getting likes and comments. And when we feel that we did not

satisfy our online friends and followers, like not getting enough likes and comments on our

posts, it affects the perception of ourselves. And this will cause some sort of depression. One

might withdraw socially and virtually. Aside from depression, He also reported that it could also

be a source of stress (Damota, 2019).

 “Primarily because social media promotes putting up a facade that highlights all the fun,

excitement, and success we seem to enjoy but tells very little about where we are struggling in

our day-to-day life on a deeper level and leads to an experience of false intimacy. So, to fit in,

in our profiles we try to portray perfectly happy and trendy facades because that’s what we see

others doing. As a result, our profiles reflect how we want to be perceived, rather than showing

an honest picture of who we truly are.” (Damota 2019)

Putting up a façade just to impress people on social media could become stressful for

an individual. Life is not always about popping a bottle of champagne. We are struggling every

day. This show leads some individuals to put up false social networking profiles to deceive

users into having a perfect life (Damota, 2019). This type of person is called Catfish and its

process is called “catfishing”. Social media has also become a tool for terrorism where they

share their propaganda and recruit members. (p. 9)

Another study conducted by Akram & Kumar (2017), where they study the positive and

negative effects of social media on society. They categorized its impact by Health, Business,

Education, Children, and Teens. Their study implied that (i) Health - because social media is

about sharing personal experiences, just by clicking the search tab, an individual will tend to

have self-diagnosis because they relate to the video they watched and will lead to self-

diagnosis; (ii) Business – negative reviews about your product could be hard to rectify; (iii)

Education – reduced learning and research capabilities, reduction on real social interaction,

reduced command on language usage and creative and writing skills, and loss of motivation

among students; (iv) Children and teens – prone to have a body image crisis, risky sexual

behavior, and low performance in school; (v) Society – Cyber harassing, Hacking, Addiction,

Fraud and Scam, and Reputation. Social media has different merits, yet likewise has few faults

which influence individuals contrarily (Akram & Kumar, 2018). False data can lead the training

framework to disappointment, in organizations wrong promotion will influence productivity,

online networking can roughly move the public by attacking individuals' security, and some

pointless sites can impact youth that can end up plainly savage and can take a few wrong

activities. (p. 353)

Chukwuemeka (2022) also pointed out in his article that social media increased time

wastage. As you put excessive time into interacting on social the more you become

unproductive. Social media could also be the source of Cyber Crime – a crime committed online

using network-connected devices such as phones and laptops. Cyber Crime range from (a)

Phishing, which used to refer to hackers who use bait, most enticing words, to steal users’ data

for fraud; (b) Cyber Extortion, where criminals use a threat to make individuals pay a certain

amount of money or risk-sharing sensitive information with others or infecting the system with a

virus; (c) Data Breach, here an unauthorized user gains access to information they are not

supposed to see. This mostly happens in companies where an insider happens to steal

sensitive information for their own malicious benefits; (d) Identity Theft, which happens when an

unknown person takes another’s details, usually bank details, email, or phone number, and

uses it to commit fraud. For instance, someone using your identity to siphon money from your

friends or company; (e) Harassment, Online harassment is usually done to a group of people on

an anonymous basis. This group of people attacks either a person or another group. Such as an

attack on a celebrity or an attack on lesbians and calling them abnormal. This is also called

cyberbullying. (Chukwuemeka, 2022)

Social Media’s effects on society are an overly broad topic to discuss, but we must take

a stand on how to use it wisely as we are appearing in a world where technology leads

humanity. Knowing its negative impact could make every individual wise on interacting virtually.

These negative impacts could be minimized if we properly teach an individual how one must

manage the usage of social media platforms. It is also better if we could minimize the usage of

the platforms to somehow connect and form real relationships with real people. It is mentioned
that excessive use of social media could lead to stress or depression. Our standard for

ourselves must be figured out by our own, not by the number of likes and comments we get on

social media. We must not be pressured on the lifestyle that others share on platforms like

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. – it is only a façade that people who seek attention put up to

feel accomplished. Knowing its negative impact would let us learn the boundaries of using social

media platforms.
 References

Damota, M. (2019), The Effect of social media on Society Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/

342145135_The_Effect_of_Social_Media_on_Society

Akram, W., Kumar, R., (2017), A Study on Positive and Negative effect of social media on

Society, Volume 5, Issue 10 Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/

323903323_A_Study_on_Positive_and_Negative_Effects_of_Social_Media_on_Society

Chukwuemeka, E. (2022), Positive and Negative Effects of social media in Society Retrieved

from

https://bscholarly.com/positive-and-negative-effects-of-social-media-on-society/