Pietila 1

Kinsley

Lisa Shenton

Composition

23 October 2023

Impact of social media on Society

When you roll over in the morning what is the first thing you do? Make your bed, brush

your teeth and then go on a walk? This most likely is not the case. A study made by Reveiws.org

found “89 percent of Americans say they check their phones within the first 10 minutes of

waking up.” Socia media is taking over society and not for the better. Social media has a

negative impact on society because it affects your communication skills and your mental health.

Social media has a negative impact on society because it affects your communication

skills. For reference, Susan Taranico, the writer for Forbes magazines, tells a story about a

mother texting her daughter who was attending college, and this is what she says. “On a crisp

Friday afternoon last October, Sharon Seline exchanged text messages with her daughter who

was in college. They 'chatted' back and forth, mom asking how things were going and daughter

answering with positive statements followed by emoticons showing smiles, b-i-g smiles and

hearts. Happiness. Later that night, her daughter attempted suicide. In the days that followed, it

came to light that she’d been holed up in her dorm room, crying and showing signs of depression

-- a completely different reality from the one that she conveyed in texts, Facebook posts and

tweets.” (Forbes Magazine). This shows that although you are reading or seeing one thing a

person posts, you never know what the person is really going through because what people
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convey online is not always the same compared to in person. To add on, social media makes it

nearly impossible to read body language. “As human beings, our only real method of connection

is through authentic communication,” states Forbes magazine. “Studies show that only 7% of

communication is based on the written or verbal word. A whopping 93% is based on nonverbal

body language.” (Forbes magazine). This proves that you need nonverbal body language to know

what people actually mean. For example, it's only when we can hear a tone of voice or look into

someone's eyes that we're able to know when "I'm fine" doesn't mean they’re fine at all. With a

lack of authentic conversations, social media can break up relationships due to misreading. As

Forbes magazine also states “With all the powerful social technologies at our fingertips, we are

more connected - and potentially more disconnected - than ever before. Every relevant metric

shows that we are interacting at breakneck speed and frequency through social media. But are we

really communicating? With 93% of our communication context stripped away, we are now

attempting to forge relationships and make decisions based on phrases. Abbreviations. Snippets.

Emoticons. Which may or may not be accurate representations of the truth.” (Forbes magazine).

With social media making it easier to hide your real emotions, it also makes it easier to forge

friendship and even relationships. Social media has a negative impact on society because it

affects your communication skills.

Social media has a negative impact on society because it affects your mental health

significantly and can often lead to negative self-perception. Whitney Goodman, a licensed

marriage and family therapist and author of the book “Toxic Positivity,” comes across this

feeling regularly in her clients. She notes that “clients often feel less than after using social

media.” She then goes on to say that social media often creates a feeling of ‘never being enough’

or reinforces the idea that perfection is possible. Whitney Goodman also states “seeing filtered
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slices from someone’s life can lead you to assume they’re living in complete bliss, even as you

know you aren’t. And when it comes to physical appearance, frequent exposure to filtered and

Photoshopped images can also lead to self-consciousness and dislike for your own looks. In fact,

there’s even a term for this experience — Snapchat dysmorphia.” (Goodman). If you and your

brain are always exposed to edited pictures, with the highlights of everyone’s life, you will

subconsciously feel lesser than everyone you are looking at. To add on, social media messes up

your sleep schedule. According to research in 2019 made by Healthline the article states “One

explanation that may drive excessive use, even despite any potential consequences, is fear of

missing out (FOMO). You might have a hard time logging off if you worry that doing so means

you’ll miss something important.” (Healthline). Using social media at night may stimulate your

brain when you are trying to lay down and sleep. In result of this it is much harder to fall sleep.

Furthermore, social media has been linked to anxiety and depression. For example, Healthline

conducted another study in 2016 and found this. “A 2016 study using survey data from 1,787

U.S. adults between the ages of 19 and 32 found a link between social media use and increased

depression. A 2017 study used data from same survey to explore the impact of using multiple

social media platforms. The results of this study suggest people using between 7 to 11 social

media platforms are more likely to experience depression and anxiety than people using between

0 and 2 platforms.” (Healthline). Reducing your daily social media use by as little as 30 minutes

can help reduce feelings of anxiety and depression, especially when compared to those who use

social media more extensively. It's important to recognize and manage the potential effects of

social media on your mental well-being.

Some may say that it depends on how a person uses social media but that is not always

the case. For instance, nothing in life is free, so why is social media? Global News article states
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“On a lot of free websites … they’re not the customer, they’re the product being sold.” (Global

News). Although you may not know this, you are the product being sold. For example, internet

companies will gather and store data on millions of users that spend time on free content sites

such as social media. This data includes location, browsing habits, and buying behavior. The

companies then can use this data to edit their marketing campaigns. To add on, social media

makes you feel isolated. Global News article also states, “Being able to determine what is a fake

social media account, being able to adjust our privacy settings, being able to understand that

we’re not seeing all sides, we’re not seeing the full picture based on our friend’s posts, that

there’s algorithms at play.” (Global News). Social media is basically a highlight reel for people’s

life making it hard to differentiate real from fake, so when you just see the highlights, it is always

easier to feel down on yourself then it is to think about how grateful you are. And lastly, 75% of

millennials choose texting over talking. OpenMarket article conducted a survey and here is what

they found “When given the choice between being able only to text versus call on their mobile

phone, a whopping 75 percent of millennials chose texting over talking.” (OpenMarket). When

you’re texting it is hard to interpret how the person is saying what they are actually trying to say.

For example, an exclamation point can be used to show excitement or anger. So, when sending

texts, it can be misunderstood and cause unnecessary drama. As stated before, you need body

language to really understand and engage in what a person is saying, but in person talks is not

always easy to plan so talking over the phone is the best alternative. Some may say that it

depends on how a person uses social media.

Social media has a negative impact on society because it affects your communication

skills and your mental health. Social media is the new norm to today’s society, we will never get

rid of it so you have to learn how to manage and use social media effectively.
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Work Cited

Tardanico, Susan. “Is Social Media Sabotaging Real Communication?” Forbes, Forbes

Magazine, 15 Apr. 2014, www.forbes.com/sites/susantardanico/2012/04/30/is-social-media-

sabotaging-real-communication/?sh=73ca950c2b62.

Tartakovsky, Margarita. “Creating a Healthier Relationship with Social Media.” Healthline,

Healthline Media, 20 Apr. 2022, www.healthline.com/health/social-media-and-mental-

health#the-cons.

Collie, Meghan. “Social Media Can Be Toxic, but Some Argue It Isn’t as Bad as We Thought -

National.” Global News, Global News, 2 Nov. 2019, globalnews.ca/news/6108401/social-media-

bad-for-teens/.

“Why Millennials Would Rather Text than Talk.” OpenMarket, 10 Aug. 2018,

www.openmarket.com/blog/millennials-prefer-text-over-talk/.