Social Media and its Influence

Social Media is a computerised method that makes it easier to share concepts, ideas,
and knowledge through online groups and networks, but does the availability of social media
can lead to negative effects? By giving the people the power to share, we’re making the
world more transparent said Mark Zuckerberg. Social media is one of the biggest invention
of the 21st century, but it also poses obstacles like users tend to spread false information, and
became an instrument for bullying and etc.

Social media creates an impact on its users minds by means of how they want them to
think, which changes their opinions and perceptions towards certain or various topics. Positive
or negative outcomes will occur, which affects the reason for an individual’s perspective in the
information he or she will get, which affects their mental health well-being. According to a study
conducted by TechTarget (2019), Social Media has a power to affect other people’s views and
thinking. Through the use of influence and power, Influencers can control how their supporters
think about a certain issue or topic. The more influence a person has, the greater their
responsibility to educate and spread positivity to the world. With great power comes great
responsibility holds true in the realm of influence.

The main benefit of Social Media is connection. The beauty of Social Media is that it
allows you to communicate with anyone and anywhere. Today by simply downloading apps,
you can call your family, and friends even if they're on the other side of the world. In addition,
students typically lack the proper outlet for expressing their emotions. Through social media,
they are given the chance to express themselves. Social Media became an instrument for
youth to freely introduced what and who they really are without the fear of judgement.

Another benefit of Social Media is its a new way of learning. Social Media makes it
simpler to gain knowledge from professionals and subject matter experts. As a result,
knowledge spreads more easily. We can educate ourselves for free regardless of where we
reside or our educational background. Because of the presences of Youtube, LinkedIn, and
other apps, it helps us advance our knowledge and expand our horizons.

Last benefit of Social Media is how it can spread news and promote goods. In a matter
of minutes, news from one country can spread like wildfire, like the Russia-Ukraine War. Many
businesses, especially small and local ones, have benefited from using Social Media for
marketing, and direct sales. This helps the users to be knowledgeable about what’s going on to
our world and also grow our business and promote the works of our country.
 While all of these are really helpful and beneficial for us users, social media has flaws.
Social media can be used negatively if it becomes an addiction. When this happens, people
prefer to spend the majority of their time on social media, which can lead to lack of physical
activity and productivity, anxiety, and even depression. The negative use of social media also
contributes to people being isolated to the real world where their social life only revolves
around the internet. The usage of social media may harm one’s privacy, particularly when we
post too much about our personal information, which applies to the negative use of social
media.

One of the disadvantages of Social Media is it can spread Fake news. Fake news is
simply false or misleading information presented as a news. People tend to believe in fake
news if this false information is beneficial for them. Fake news is really biased because its goal
is to ruin a preserved reputation.

Another disadvantage of Social Media is it can be an instrument for Cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying takes place over Social Media networks, its about sharing negative, mean,
harmful content about someone and it can lead to Mental Health Issues. The most common
effect of cyberbullying on the users mental health is depression and anxiety. Victims often
experience extreme sadness and anxiety. Overexposure to such negative behaviors can make
them feel worthless and basically trash.

In conclusion, In our generation social media has several positive sides including;
connectivity, information sharing, new method of learning and more. It also has several
negative sides including : Addiction, spread of fake news, Cyberbullying and more. Social
media may be the biggest invention in the 21st century. Social media have positive and
negative effects, but the negative ones will only affect you if you let them so always use your
platform to spread kindness and positivity. Always remember to fact check, A wise man once
said that don’t believe everything you read on the internet just because there’s a picture
with a title next to it. Always fact check and don’t let influence define your stand in a topic.