Final opinion

Social Media Slowly Killing Us Or Saving Us? 

Social media has been on the uprise since 2011, and is going to continue to grow for the next centuries to come. Social media has been shaping the way we do things. This is because people are influenced by people who portray that they are better off. The millennial generation has made it a habit to only do things for social media to prove that they are living their best lives. When it comes to social media there isn't just one emotion or behaviors that is represented. However, social media has created negative connotations across all platforms and people.

As I started to develop my ideas and search articles on social media I found that there were more negative connotations, then there were supporting ideas. According to Jessica Brown from BBC, there are tons of factors in life that are affected by social media. Those factors are stress, mood, anxiety, depression, sleep, addiction, self-esteem, relationships, and envy. 

Stress/Mood

People use social media to vent about customer services to politics, which creates endless stream stress. I completely agree that people can get stressed based on what they are reading. It has been reported that social media has lowered the moods of the participants that were being studied. Moods are very easily passed on from person to person, and this could set an attitude for the whole group. I can say that I have witnessed people’s mood change based on something they saw online. Anxiety has been a result of social media, this statement is very true and I can say that I have personally seen and experienced anxiety from being online. 

Depression/Addiction and Lack of Sleep

Millenials have been studying for years to see what causes their depression, and one of the leading findings is social media. I have researched depression in teens who are on social media and all the results come from seeing others happiness or glorious lives. Technology has been known to display artificial lighting which can cause people to have a restless sleep schedule. The blue lighting can cause the hormone melatonin in our bodies to not be produced. Since I have read about this study I have bought a pair of blue light glasses to help protect my eyes and the production of melatonin in my body. Humans have suffered from addiction in many different ways from drugs to social media. Social media has been addicting because people want to stay in touch and up to date with the lives of others, and I can say that I have 100% been addicted to social media at one point. 

Self-Eestem

Another result of social media is the self-esteem issues in teens. Teens are usually the ones that are being affected by this issue. This is because there are girls and guys advertising themselves as being the most attractive and sexiet people alive. This causes people who are not like them to want to be like them. It affected girls and women the most because there is this standard that has been put on women since before social media or even technology was around. 

Relationships

Social media has supported talking with people you might not know online. This has caused many issues, but it has also brought people together who may not have been able to meet without it. I have had first hand experience with online relationship presence because I actually met my now boyfriend on a dating site. This might make me biased towards this factor of social media. However, this can be a negative if the person isn't saying who they actually are and are trying to be someone they are not, in my case that was not true. The last factor that has always ruined people's relationship is the fourth deadly sin, envy. People envy people that have things that they can not have which can cause people to retaliate. People have been known to post the same content so that they will make the others jealous. 

Social media has affected humans all around the world since it made its appearance in 2010. It has caused many positive and negative results in millenials and young teenagers. Social media has enstilled fear and has given us great amounts of important information. However, people have made bad decsions and turned it into something that is good for humans. 

Reference: 

Brown, Jessica. “Is Social Media Bad for You? The Evidence and the Unknowns.” BBC Future, BBC, 5 Jan. 2018, www.bbc.com/future/article/20180104-is-social-media-bad-for-you-the-evidence-and-the-unknowns. 

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Seven Deadly Sins.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 11 Sept. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/seven-deadly-sins.

Team, Gary Heiting. “How Blue Light Is Both Bad for You AND Good for You! (Huh?).” All About Vision, Essilor - DITAC, 8 May 2020, www.allaboutvision.com/cvs/blue-light.htm. 

Psychologist, Jade Wu Savvy. “Does Social Media Cause Depression?” Scientific American, Scientific American, 16 Jan. 2020, www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-social-media-cause-depression/.