The online drug

Social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter allow you to interact with almost anyone- from a friend, to a celebrity in Hollywood. Through these innovative websites, we connect to a larger community and communicate with like-minded people with just a few keystrokes and clicks. We become globalized, becoming a part of another person’s world although we are thousands of miles apart. Despite widening the way we view the world, I believe that social media’s overwhelming influence over our lives has left a negative impact on our lifestyle.

         Nowadays, people are beginning to value the numerous casual associations created through social media instead of forming meaningful and intimate relationships with others. What is important now, is how many friends or followers you have, and how many likes you can get on a post or a photo. Because of this false sense of connection, people dedicate excessive time and energy on trying to grab the attention of those online, weakening the meaningful relationships physically near them. One example of this can be seen by the recent incident involving a young, social media star- Essena O’Neill. This 19 year old had uploaded a video of why she believed the social media was detrimental for her. She further pursued her goals by taking down her Instagram photos and by running a website called “Let’s Be Game Changers”, which documents her life after Instagram. [1] Although on the surface, her actions might have seemed full of good intentions, it was soon revealed that O’Neill did this in order to gain more attention online. [2]

         Furthermore, these sites can cause a great distraction, decreasing productivity. I reckon  every person has experienced this before. The day before a test, instead of studying hard to receive a good score, I get too caught up with the numerous posts on Facebook and get distracted for hours on end. Just like this experience, people can be distracted by humorous posts and show more interest in such pastimes than in their work. A study at UCLA in 2006 found that those who their electronics to look at social media in class, a different part of the brain is utilized. Instead of the hippocampus (used for memory and learning), the striatum (used for learning physical tasks) is used. In a way, those who multitask like this are causing their brains to be distracted, further lowering the attention spans. [3] Wired.com also has two studies which demonstrate the damage to productivity caused by social networking: Nucleus Research reported that Facebook shaves 1.5% off office productivity while Morse claimed that British companies lost nearly 2.2 billion a year to social networking sites. [4] A study at the Miriam Hospital’s Center for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine also found that a student immersed in media of any kind had a comparatively lower GPA, and in other areas of academics. Because such students spend an excessive amount of time focusing on Facebook or Instagram, they spend less time doing homework or attending class. [5]

         One of the biggest issues I have with social media is that it encourages people to be too public about their private lives. Every day, I see some of my friends post almost every detail of what they have done that day. Now, by just looking at someone’s Facebook page, you can literally know everything about that person. The filter that is employed when talking about private matters disappear and they are shared with the entire world. Further, the things that are posted will remain available indefinitely. Even if you delete the post, if a person shares, saves, or screenshots it, it will somehow remain on the web. While a photo or post may seem innocent at one time of a person’s life, a couple ignorant posts made in the past could lead to problems in the future. This is especially true in Korea, where the netizens react to even the smallest of issues and are extremely judgmental. Korean celebrity Jay Park was forced to leave his label “JYP Entertainment” and his group “2PM” after an uproar by the netizens who criticized his posts in the past that belittled South Korea.

         Addiction to social media may not seem as much of a problem in the short run. However, I believe that these issues will continue to pile up, to the point where we can’t even do anything about it. Although communication is important in today’s society, social media is actually deterring our progression as human beings. Instead of becoming more productive and active, we are becoming more lazy and are focusing on pointless matters. Hours spent looking at posts and uploading photos are taking away our time to be more constructive. To me, social media is an addictive drug. Just like any other drug, the victims become overly dependent on social networking and become slaves of it. However, the difference is that social media is available to anyone online. With the increase in social media engagement and a decrease in productive work, it is not difficult to foresee a society that is struggling to see progress economically.

SOURCES:

[1]. http://www.businessinsider.com/teenage-instagram-star-essena-oneill-quits-social-media-2015-11

[2]. http://www.techinsider.io/is-essena-oneill-quitting-instagram-a-hoax-2015-11

[3]. http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2013/05/22/how-social-media-is-killing-student-success-2/

[4]. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-effect-social-media-society-individuals-27617.html

[5]. http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2013/05/22/how-social-media-is-killing-student-success-2/

photo: https://studentny14.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/texting.jpg