Reflecting on whether social media is good or bad for users’ wellbeing.
‘Social Media detox’, a new term steadily being used more often by users of the web when they feel social media is taking over their lives. However, the addiction they fester towards their profiles and using such platforms can never keep them away for too long. When discussing social media, we can definitely create a quick list of pros and cons to the usage of these platforms, however we must dive deeper to understand the true affects these issues cause on the user themselves and their wellbeing.
Social media has many benefits from a personal perspective, but also for businesses to grow and gain engagement and customers. We have the ability to create social bonds and share our opinions with like-minded individuals, allowing us to network further than the area we live by the click of a button. Furthermore, social media platforms give space to businesses to allow them to promote their work and products, as well as giving them the ability to tailor advertisements to those who likely would be interested in their work/ product. However, we must reflect on the consideration that every good aspect has a negative side to it as well. Whilst we can reach more users in a positive manner, we must also recognise that the ease of doing so can create space for negative attention, such as the risk of cyberbullying, the spreading of mis/disinformation, and the business aspect can give way to overconsumption and capitalism. It is heavily implied by a section of users on the internet that the sociotechnical imaginary of digital self control makes it difficult to address these issues by presenting social media well-being as simply a matter of making good active choices (Niall Docherty, 2021). However, sometimes it isn’t as easy as just ‘turning off your phone’. “There is only so much you can do to prevent yourself from reopening social media due to the tailoring it creates for each user’s experience. The creators of these platforms want you to engage, whether it’s through notifying you someone liked your post, or commented. We can never truly escape social media. In 2017, a 14 year old girl by the name Molly Russell committed suicide due to platforms like instagram, pinterest and twitter. Her death was deemed to be caused by her social media consumption as 2,100 out of the 16,300 posts she viewed contained content regarding self-harm, depression and suicidal ideologies. Platforms such as those previously listed emphasise on safety and security, yet they have weaker barriers when it comes to the viewing of such content in the first place.
These platforms utilise their design and layout to make you feel like you are in control of your feed and the posts you witness, when in reality, the ai behind our screens is what causes our feeds to be tailored across every platform. The system behind each platform tracks our interests, meaning our feed is never truly catered by ourselves, but instead by what the system believes we want to see in order to keep us engaged.When considering studies based off the topics of negative and positive well being, one may discover negative well-being effects because it operates on the usage of social media features like clicking on links or the like button on Facebook (Shakya and Christakis, 2017), meanwhile another study may find more positive effects as it measures social media’s integration into social routines (Bekalu et all, 2019). The aim of the design of websites is to be simplistic yet enticing for the user to keep them engaged and increase usage of the platform in their daily life. Instagram, for example, has features like stories where the user can post content that lasts for 24 hours before disappearing to other users, allowing more freedom with what you post compared to an upload that stays on your profile until you choose to delete it. Furthermore, they provide the concept of engagement furthermore on these features through the ability to like stories and reply to them, encouraging you to interact with other users. Alongside this, short-form content such as reels is used to provide entertainment for users by tailoring the videos to content they may be interested in or have engaged with in the past. Reels can be seen as addictive as they cause the user to gain interest in certain topics, sounds, comments provided by other users, or the profiles that post them too. In doing so, it causes the engagement levels to go up further to tailor the feed of the user for their interest. However, this can impact the user in a negative way depending on what side of the platform they end up on. You may begin with looking at cute puppies, but then 200 posts later you may be faced with content regarding triggering topics such as animal abuse or political views that concern animal rights activism that politically manipulate you into changing your beliefs on the topic. Whilst obviously this matter is largely moral based, this situation can apply to any political view that is discussed on such platforms.
In conclusion, we can consider both the digitization of our society and the usage of digital media to have both positive and negative effects that are not mutually exclusive, but instead can happen at the same time when consuming the media provided to us. There are benefits to using certain platforms and their designs, meanwhile they can come with harmful after-effects or joint effects that can influence a person’s political views, psychological well-being, or their personality as a whole. We must take into consideration how we use social media to ensure the content we consume does not negatively impact us, yet this is not always achievable as the content can catch us off-guard when navigating these platforms, therefore causing us to always be at risk when using social media for personal and business-related reasons. Overall, we must find balance when using social media platforms to ensure the content we put on it, and take away from it, provides a good experience for all users.
Food for Thought: Linked is the trailer for one fo Netflix’s most intriguing, realistic documentaries in my opinion. If you wish to learn more about social media’s impact on humanity, check it out here:
Reference List.
- BBC News (2022) ‘Molly Russell: Social media causes no end of issues, head says’, BBC News, 28 September. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news
- Bekalu, M.A., McCloud, R.F. and Viswanath, K. (2019) ‘ Association of social media use with social well-being, positive mental health, and self-rated health: Disentangling routine use from emotional connection to use’, Health Education & Behaviour, 42, pp. 69-76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198119863768.
- Buchi, M. (2022) ‘Digital well-being theory and research’, New Media & Society, 26(1), pp. 5-17 https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211056851.
- Docherty, N. (2021) ‘Digital self-control and the neoliberalization of social media well-being’, International Journal of Communication, 15, pp 3827-3846. Available at: https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/17721Shakya, H.B. and Christakis, N.A. (2017) ‘Association of Facebook use with compromised well-being: A longitudinal study’, American Journal of Epidemiology, 185(3), pp. 203-211. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kww189.
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