Change Your World Week Winter 2022 (Archived)

Social media is a internet based form of communication that acts as a outlet for people to talk to others, post their lives, and do just about anything you can imagine all behind a screen. There is many different forms of social media, like instant messaging, photo/video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, news, and lots more. In this day in age 4.48 billion people use social media world wide, With social media accounts on the rise so are the dangers and negative impacts of these platforms. Many dangers lie within the screens of social media such as, mental and physical health problems, security issues, and influences all affecting our daily lives with or without recognizing it.

Mental Health Issues:

In 2018 there was a British study done that that tied the use of social media to cause disrupted or delayed sleep or even decreased sleep, which further lead to complications such as anxiety, memory loss, depression and many others. Another year later there was another study done that showed teenagers who use social media for 3 or more hours a day are much more likely to experiences mental health issues like anxiety, depression, aggression, memory loss, and even antisocial disorder. Social media can be a very toxic place and is proven to negatively effect peoples mental health. Factors that contribute to these mental health issues occurring are cyber bullying, self absorption, fear of missing out, isolation, along with many others.

Physical Health Issues:

Social media plays a huge role in mental health issues but it also creates physical health issues as well. At the University of Buffalo research was found that indicates people who use social media excessively were found to have high levels of C reactive protein, which is a biological marker of chronic inflammation that further leads to a serious illness, such as diabetes, certain cancers and cardiovascular diseases. Some people also reported having headaches, back and chest pains, and they were more ill frequently. Many others also agreed that it lead them to have a sedentary lifestyle which made their health decline from sitting at a phone or computer all day. Social media overall can have a very negative effect on your mental health and the over use of it may be serious.

• If one is looking for information about someone, often times there is no better place to find it than their social media pages. People post pictures of themselves, what they're doing, who they associate with, and more on their pages. If someone was trying to impersonate you or steal your information it is no more than a click away. Identity theft is a massive problem in today's online world, where once someone has your information they can access your bank account and shopping pages in one sitting. Over the course of 2020 alone, nearly $56 Billion was lost to identity theft, with victims losing around $1,100 on average.

• Not only are you in danger of identity theft, but scammers are stepping up their game. Online scams used to consist of emails containing viruses or the famous "Nigerian Prince" scams but they are getting much more sophisticated and are currently plaguing social media platform. Nowadays, scams consist of fake romances, false shopping advertisements, and promising investments. Of all of these, the biggest danger is shopping scams, with 45% of people who lost their money saying that it was one of these where an item was promised and never delivered.

• One problem that can affect anyone is cyberbullying. Anyone that puts themselves on the internet can be subject to all forms of abuse from  harassment to hate speech. Cyberbullying can even become a big enough problem that law enforcement becomes involved. In some cases, it can even end in tragedy, such as the case of Ryan Halligan. Halligan was led on by a girl in his school, who eventually turned around and embarrassed him in front of his entire school, which led to him committing suicide in October of 2003.

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO): This is a idea that grew with the use of social media and is just what is sounds. People explain this as a form of anxiety that arises when you are worried of missing out on a positive experience that someone else is having. Having this fear and worry could have you checking your phone more and even checking your friends social media profiles to make sure they aren't doing anything fun without you. This fear is constantly being triggered from what you see on your social feeds, a person who has more social media use has a better chance to have/develop FOMO.

Unrealistic Expectations: Viewing social media pages and seeing others doing fun and enjoyable activities makes people want to follow there footsteps to do the same things. People will believe it is so easy without knowing the true backstory to the post itself. Seeing and watching these social media posts give you the expectation that you can do what they are doing and that it will be just as glamorous as they shared it to be. All these expectations are unrealistic the person who posted themselves at a beach vacation house is actually deep in debt and the person who shared how much they love there loved one is actually holding on to the last strings in the relationship. nobody would ever want to share the negative things that embarrass them on their social media so the only thing you see as you scroll is all the cool and fun adventures your peers are experiencing.

Negative Body Image: If you have ever idolized someone famous or followed there social media you would see how beautiful and perfect they look everyday. Seeing these perfect looking people who can afford to remodel themselves and pay to have makeup artists for them everyday. All these things make us want to be the same way but when we realize we are not and can not be that way, we start to develop a negative body image. 

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• Buzzard, J., & Kitten, T. (2021, March 23). 2021 identity fraud study: Shifting angles. 2021 Identity Fraud Study: Shifting Angles. Retrieved February 22, 2022, from https://www.javelinstrategy.com/content/2021-identity-fraud-report-shifting-angles-identity-fraud
• Fletcher, Emma. Social media a gold mine for scammers in 2021. Federal Trade Commission, 2022, www.ftc.gov/news-events/data-visualizations/data-spotlight/2022/01/social-media-gold-mine-scammers-2021.
• The truth behind 6 disturbing cyberbullying cases that turned into suicide stories…
• D.says:, J., Deansays:, B., Karlottasays:, T., McEvoysays:, S., & Andreasays: (2021, October 10). How many people use Social Media in 2022? (65+ statistics). Backlinko. Retrieved April 1, 2022, from https://backlinko.com/social-media-users 
• How does social media affect our mental and physical health? Community Health Center in Houston, TX. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2022, from https://www.offeringhope.org/social-media-affect-mental-health 
• MediLexicon International. (n.d.). Social Media and Mental Health: Depression and psychological effects. Medical News Today. Retrieved April 1, 2022, from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/social-media-and-mental-health#statistics 
• ScienceDaily. (2022, January 24). Social media use tied to poor physical health. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 1, 2022, from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220124103917.htm 
• The social dilemma: Social media and your mental health. Here's How Social Media Affects Your Mental Health | McLean Hospital. (2022, January 21). Retrieved April 1, 2022, from https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/it-or-not-social-medias-affecting-your-mental-health 

• University of South Florida - UCM. “Marketing.” Introduction to Social Media | University Communications and Marketing, https://www.usf.edu/ucm/marketing/intro-social-media.aspx.

• Stegner, Ben, and Ben Stegner (1805 Articles Published) . “7 Negative Effects of Social Media on People and Users.” MUO, 27 Dec. 2021, https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/negative-effects-social-media/.