Negative Impacts Of Social Media On Humankind

Negative Impacts of Social Media on Humankind

Ashraf Rivera-Jimenez

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Statistics show that in 2017, roughly 71 percent of the global population engages in social media activity and the percentage is likely to grow. (“Number of social media users,” n.d.). This rapidly growing industry has enabled society to interact with friends and family over a virtual world not limited by distance or time. Additionally, websites such as Facebook have allowed us to rekindle communications with someone we may have lost touch with long before the genesis of social media. When giving social media a casual analysis, it seems to be a great tool designed for the benefit of society and has become a staple in our generation.

Numerous comprehensive studies have correlated poor sleep quality and social media usage, especially before bedtime and during sleep. When we sleep, our phones are usually close by. Alerts such as a Facebook notification can cause interruptions to our sleep cycle. Lack of, or poor sleep, contributes to other detrimental things like anxiety, depression and the implications are evident in overall well-being. “The significant associations between nighttime-specific social media use, poor sleep quality and anxiety and depression are in line with the idea that adolescents’ late night social media use results in later bedtimes and poorer sleep, which in turn contributes to anxiety and depression” (Woods & Scott, 2016). Another study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh, surveyed almost 2,000 adults to determine whether there was a link to social media usage and depression. “Those who checked their social media most frequently were 2.7 times more likely to be depressed compared to those who checked less often. Those who spent the most amount of time on social media throughout the week had 1.7 times the likelihood of depression” (Olson,

Addiction will propagate and enhance the other negative effects of utilizing social media as addicted users will log in to websites and apps with the intention of thinking it will help lift their mood. “Part of the unhealthy cycle is that we keep coming back to social media, even though it doesn’t make us feel very good. This is probably because of what’s known as a forecasting error: Like a drug, we think getting a fix will help, but it actually makes us feel worse, which comes down to an error in our ability to predict our own response” (Walton, 2017). To highlight the addictive nature of social media websites, over 23,500 participants were tested using the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale and the results revealed certain traits such as narcissism and demographics such as age and sex correlated to social media addiction. The need to boost our egos, and to obstruct our negative self-evaluations drive us towards social media with the mindset of feeling better after using a social media website, not worse. Other types of addiction exhibit these same