Good Example Of Essay On Social Media

Many a time, the elders of today mention the halcyon days when they used to enjoy their evenings with friends and family while sitting in the lawn drinking coffee or juices. They mention the days of yore when the entire family would enjoy a quiet morning walk in the street. Nowadays, according to the elders, no relationship is as strong as it used to be. The bonds have weakened; sincerity has dropped; and yet, the social media portrays that there was never a time when a single person had so many friends. However, having a thousand people on one’s friend list is not a proof of a healthy social life. It can be argued with much plausibility that in the pretense of friendship and frankness through social networking sites, people forget the true value of relationships and the responsibilities and perquisites that go with it. Although the social media has had many positive influences on the society as a whole, its costs in abstract terms still outweigh the benefits because the true essence of relationships has been abandoned in favor of short-term friendships. Also, social media is a source of distraction for the youngsters who are supposed to devote time to their studies because social media is truly addictive. Moreover, social media chips away at the copious amount of time that would otherwise be employed in productive activities.
One of the most overriding concerns regarding social media’s effect on culture is the superficiality of the social media world. Some kids post pictures of themselves at self-proclaimed important parties just to make an impression that their parents are open-minded enough to let them go to such parties. When I interviewed a student with respect to this, his reply was the following: “Sometimes, just to save ourselves from the embarrassment of being called losers, we post pictures and lie about the location or time just to show to our friends that we were out late at night.”
In order to keep adding fuel to the superficial world, lies are told, and pictures are posted that do not mean anything in reality. Also, according to such individuals, they believe that if they are disconnected for a day, they feel that they are living a life of isolation and that they have no friends or family (ICMPA, 2010). In other words, the friendships cease to exist outside the social networking world. Other than hardly one or two close friends, the rest of the list of friends is limited to the online world only.
Relationship statuses are changed on Facebook just to stay in vogue, as was admitted by the student in the interview. In other words, social media is now considered one of the major sources of peer pressure (Vincent, 2013). Researchers discovered that kids who witnessed more pictures on social media of their friends drinking were more likely to drink and smoked themselves. Therefore, social media has a negative effect in the form of excess peer pressure.
Moreover, social media is a constant distraction for youngsters who are addicted to social networking. Interestingly, regular users of social networking sites exhibit all symptoms of actual addiction. They use terms that are used to describe addiction in order to explain their dependence (ICMPA, 2010). The students in the age group of the 18-21 resort to texting all the time in order to make plans for outing or even study groups (ICMPA, 2010). However, it does more harm than good in the form of constant diversion of attention. As part of a study of the behavior pattern of students, they were told to be unplugged for 24 hours. Afterwards, students admitted to having devoted more time to coursework because of no distraction in the form of Facebook, videos and messages (ICMPA, 2010). The students admitted to being more focused in class also and that they paid more attention to the lecture and took down notes meticulously.
Social media is a cornucopia of entertaining material like video clips and pictures. Such captivating material is available online that hours can be spent without noticing the passage of time. However, these non-productive activities come at the expense of more productive ones that could either contribute to the fact-based knowledge or could help a person earn extra money. It is, however, also important to note that the social media presents many activities to earn money conveniently. For example, writing blogs is one of the most entertaining and easy ways of earning oneself an extra salary. Some people use the social networking platform in order to project their business ideas and, therefore, are successful in obtaining funds for the advancement of the business plan. Others advertise their products in the social media and make windfall gains through conducting a business online. Therefore, while social media lures towards non-productive activities, people who are bent towards making good use of technology use it to their own advantage by getting involved in creative ideas.
Social media has changed the nature of relationships by bringing superficiality to them. It has also caused youngsters to have more exposure to peer pressure and has propelled them into time-wasting activities. The culture has therefore been adversely affected by the social media, and its ramifications are being felt today.

References

ICMPA (2010, May 20). A Day without Media. Research Project, University of Maryland, Phillip Merrill College of Journalism. Retrieved from http://withoutmedia.wordpress.com/
Vincent, James. (2013, Sep. 5). The Facebook effect? Social media exposure increases smoking and drinking among teens. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-facebook-effect-social-media-exposure-increases-smoking-and-drinking-among-teens-8800216.html