In the eyes of many, many people social media is seen as a bad thing and that it shouldn’t be used. And they’re not entirely wrong at all. 

One of the biggest issues with social media these days is cyberbullying. Ever since the rise of social media, there has also been a rise in cyberbullying with about 37% of people ages 12-17 having been bullied online according to dosomething.org. Another issue is that social media can be extremely destructive to someone’s self-image. Many people go on to social media and see a post where someone might look better than them or someone having a better life and they could think to themselves why their life isn’t that way. Many people don’t understand that most of what they see on social media is not real. It’s edited or posted in a way where everything looks great. But not everyone realizes this and low self-esteem compared to the highlights of others’ lives could and will spiral into a mental disorder, most commonly social anxiety disorder and in severe cases major depressive disorder. And one of the biggest reasons many see social media as a negative thing is because it is extremely addicting. It has now gotten to the point where people are mindlessly scrolling through social media for hours a day. This has led to issues like the two discussed above and others as well such as a shortened attention span and isolation.

With all these negative issues going on, sometimes we need to ask ourselves how we change to make social media a better place for everyone. Fortunately, according to various sources and positive influencers on social media, there are a few ways we can all make a difference. One popular action we can take is, finding the right community on social media. What I mean is it is really important to find the right friends, the right influencers, the right people, and things that are on Social Media that are positive and not negative. Another awesome action is taking a good break from social media for a bit. I have to admit that sometimes I find myself just endlessly scrolling for hours and hours on end, just because of how entertaining social media is. But taking a break and really enjoying the things in your life that matter such as friends, family, pets, etc is very beneficial.

Last thing is making sure you are posting good things on social media. Yes, it’s cool following people who are positive but please make sure that the things you post are positive as well. Let’s change Social Media for the better, and make it something everyone can enjoy.