Social Media: How Much is Too Much?
Social media is a driving force in the lives of many today. It is used for news, for entertainment, in an attempt to find connection, and for many other things. But do people today rely on social media too much? The average amount of time spent on social media worldwide per day is 145 minutes (2 hours and 25 minutes) a significant amount of time. The Philippines, as the country spending the highest average amount of time on social media, has users which average 3 hours and 53 minutes on various social media sites per day.
The rapid rise of Social Media
Social media hasn’t always been this prevalent in our lives. The American Psychological Association explains in an article that social media usage has exploded from being used by approximately 5% of American adults in 2005 to around 70% in 2019. That’s barely a generation. And like many new things, it is widely viewed with suspicion. A study from Pew Research shows 64% of Americans believe social media has a negative impact on the country, although this number increases among Democrats compared to Republicans, while also increasing if the person uses more social media.
People use social media for many reasons. A research paper focused on American usage of social media found that most people used it to stay connected with their friends and family. Connecting with old friends is also a major reason, while connecting with others that have shared interests, making new friends, reading comments by well-known figures and finding possible significant others are less common reasons.
But is social media actually bad for you?
How does Social Media affect Teenagers?
One topic many people are heated about is teenagers and social media. This Mayo Clinic article informs us that while teenagers may find social media useful in many ways, it is a tool that can warp their self-image and lower their self-confidence, among other things, should they use it too long. While this APA article, mentioned before, shows that social media usage, at least for teens, is something that doesn’t necessarily decrease social ‘face-to-face’ time, it has many other troubling effects. Despite helping teens as a creative outlet and allowing them to more easily stay connected, social media can expose teens to bad and/or biased people, violent or otherwise inappropriate content, and cyberbullying. It is a double-edged sword — and one that teenagers may find hard to stay away from, as the APA article from before also tells us about the theory of researcher Dana Boyd, PhD, who believes that teenagers have a harder time being able to socialize face-to-face with others these days, leading them to communicate via social media.
How does Social Media affect Adults?
But teenagers aren’t the only ones who are affected by social media usage. Forbes shows that many downsides of social media usage, including its addictiveness, it’s links to feeling more sadness, and jealousy at other peoples seemingly perfect lives (contributing to the sadness) occur across ages and generation gaps. Taking a break from social media is even compared to going through withdrawal. Yet, an article from the American Psychological Association shows in a study that participants in a period of not using social media did not interact more with their friends and family. In another article, researchers reviewed past studies on how anxiety and depression related to social media. They found that people who had past anxiety and depression suffered significantly while on social media, but those who didn’t have anxiety and depression often have positive experiences. It seems the question of whether social media is good or bad for people is too complicated to be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.”
What to take away:
Social media is not something that can easily be detangled from people’s daily lives. It is used widely across the globe for entertainment, connection, to find news, to learn new things, to follow public figures and more. But although it can have many positive effects, it can have many negative ones as well. It is wise to be wary around social media. Ask yourself — can you honestly say you’ve never found yourself troubled by the amount of time you spend on social media — or how you feel afterwards? If the answer is no… it might be time to take a step back.
