The Good the Bad the Ugly on Social Media

What is this thing we call social media? Social media is multiple networks that people use to create or share content. You can use social media for countless things. You can see and talk to people from all over the world. However, it is not as peachy as you might think. A lot of bad things can come as a result of social media use. A lot of cyberbullying and comparison come as a result of social media. What I’ve learned from the interviews is that what you see on social media are the things you look at the most. Rather, it’s nothing but news or supermodels.

I’ve interviewed a number of people and they all have one thing in common, the most used social media app is TikTok. Why TikTok you may ask? Well, the answer is simple, it’s “addicting”. You sit there and scroll for what you think is going to be a couple of minutes which turns into a couple of hours. 

A lot of people tend to look to social media for inspiration and encouragement. They see people who they inspire to be or in a place in life, they wish one day to achieve. However, what comes with that is a lot of comparisons. If all you see is the rich and you’re not in that place of life yet some people reflect on themselves wishing they had that. Then comes the feeling of needing to be like these people because that’s what’s popular. Everybody wants what they don’t have even when it’s not real. 

In an interview with Haley Sanchez, she called social media  “fake” because you only see what people post. “You don’t know how they really live and social media tends to portray an illusion for the viewers.” In another interview with a staff member, Bob, he also tells us how social media is fake and he tends to stay away from it because “most of the things you see on social media aren’t real; most of it is fake news.”

They are positive things that have come from social media. Bob explained that he uses Facebook to contact old friends and to capture all the important moments in life. 

Social media can be used to promote campaigns, make us aware of world issues, and remind us about the “good” things in life. From personal experience scrolling through social media, I’ve seen things like fundraisers for animals in shelters. This is a good thing because you have hundreds of people looking at your stuff. Which can really help your cause. It makes people more aware of your situation and people tend to help! You can see videos basically reminding you how important it is to keep going in life and not give up. Honestly, sometimes we as people do need a little reminder once in a while. social media has many uses however, we have to remember social media is what you make it. It’s okay to take a break once in a while. Social media can be a very good thing or a very bad thing. It’s all about what you can handle.