Negative Effects of Social Media - Essay Example

Side Nature of “Staying Online”: Negative Effects of Social Media

In today's world, social media are regarded in the relationship to many opportunities of interaction, such as communicating with people, reading publications, watching videos, the opportunity to share information, participate in discussions, and create communities and much more, which fully allows you to name them to be a great technological achievement in the field of communication. But there is a flip side to the coin. Along with huge opportunities come troubles ... It is impossible to claim that social media are one continuous trouble, just as it is impossible to say the same, for example, about computer games (as cited in Eslit, 2017). With a disciplined and correct approach, you can get some benefits and make your life relationship easier. But there is always a risk that dependence on social media will have harmful effects on your psyche. Social media excite pleasure centers in our brains, which is the cause of the risk of significant interaction dependence. The user feels pleasant emotions every time he reads a positive relationship comment under his photo or leaves a good response. The desire to regain these emotions again forces us to visit the spaces of social media, forcing us to spend more and more time there. After reading a short comment, answering, opening the social news in parallel, there again came across an interesting post in the community, read, turned on the audio interaction recording, underread, as distracted by messages from a friend, responding to his page, read the record again (Eslit, 2017). Behind all this is the peculiarity of assimilation of information, namely the social cited receipt of a large amount of heterogeneous information in small portions in a short period of communication time. As Wikerson (2017) explains, the speed ​​and availability are important prerequisites for the formation of any relationship of dependence. Man instinctively seeks the easiest ways to achieve the pleasure of interaction, even if these ways are ineffective and lead to harmful consequences. Take at least the habit of smoking. Here are the main problems caused by the relationship dependence on spending time on social media:

• Decreased duration of concentration

On this account, Eslit (2017) explains that the information on social media is assimilated quickly, spontaneously, and in small portions. By such actions, the brain gets used to working with the information and gradually loses the ability to keep attention on something one for a long time. Attention Relationship Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder develops. This is facilitated by the temptation of the user to move to everything at once and carry out several processes in parallel, such as communication, listening to music, discussing social communication meetings, and more. This has a bad effect on our thinking abilities. It becomes difficult to keep attention for a long time, for example, reading a book. Our mind, following this habit, begins to jump from one object to another. Therefore, there are difficulties in considering one problem; attention is constantly distracted. This problem is especially acute in the relationship context of the younger generation. Children's thinking is much more "plastic" than an adult and, therefore, can more easily adopt harmful standards of thinking.

• Information dependence

Social media can turn into a kind of chewing gum for the brain. We get used to constantly receiving some information, and if this does not happen, we begin to feel the breakdown of information. It is expressed in the fact that it becomes difficult for us to relax in those situations when the brain receives little data. After all, our brain is always worried about not stopping to chew this gum and requires new portions of information, as it used to receive it every day from social media.

• Fatigue, stress

According to Wikerson (2017), working in a mode of the continuous flow of information and alternating emotional impressions, the brain is very tired; the body experiences stress. Also, while working on social media, you look at the monitor, and the excess of such activities in itself leads to fatigue, no matter what you read.

• Alienation, decreased intelligence

When you spend a lot of time sitting on social media, your brain is busy with meaningless and aimless interaction activity, which cannot be called a full-fledged intellectual work. You just keep him busy so that he is always busy without thinking about the quality of income. Instead, you could think of something, come to a solution to life's problems, make plans for the future, come up with a useful idea, read a good book, and so on. But all this is impossible as long as your mind is puzzled by chewing internet chewing gum, turning you into a thoughtless and alienated zombie. Due to the fact that information comes quickly and continuously, you do not have time to digest it, think about it. Emotions do not develop in response to impressions, as this requires time and peace, which is not in the conditions of convulsive assimilation of information. It's as if you throw in your mouth and without chewing swallow cucumbers, dumplings, salad, borscht, candy. As Eslit (2017) explains, combining in one relationship the culinary combination sweet with salty, cold with hot. You can't even say what you liked the most in the relationship, as you hurried to swallow everything as quickly as possible and didn't have time to form an assessment, a certain emotional response. In addition, indigestion awaits you ahead ... Scientists and psychologists have long been dissatisfied with the relationship observation of Internet users who enjoy visiting social media, as cited in Wikerson (2017). The scientist explains that people's fascination with such resources, in some cases, can cause a psychological crisis and also reduce the level of concentration. The study confirmed that more than half of social media users experience feelings of nervousness, anxiety, and sometimes inappropriate behavior. Many experts believe that if a person is prone to anxiety and neurosis, then social media can be the last straw, making a person feel less happy and more upset. Social media carry many dangers. For example, the transfer of interests from the sphere of responsible life to the exclusively domestic plane. Yes, people are no longer interested in career growth or training and even broadening their horizons by reading literary works and understanding the applied sciences ... Some active users may be more interested in what their friends ate for breakfast in virtual communication. The Internet is an environment with quick action and quick reactions. The rapid change of stimuli teaches the brain to work with these abnormally short periods of time. But the Internet environment is unnatural for our brains, adapted in the course of evolution to completely different speeds, as Eslit (2017) explains. Moreover, this artificial environment, with its high speeds, contradicts the natural rhythms of nature. Breaking away from the screen, a person enters a world where he still needs to wait. And he forgot to wait. The brain of such a person ceases to perceive the information received in the normal flow at all. Here are just some of the pathological reactions produced by addiction to social networks:

• People begin to realize themselves only through the feedback of other individuals, often waiting for an immediate response to each newly posted photo. If there is no reaction, it is a tragedy.
• People increase the number of friends, forgetting that virtual friendship kills the skills of building normal relationships (as cited in Wikerson, 2017).
• Real-life begins to seem too complicated to such people; their consciousness becomes childish.
• If you spend a lot of time on the Internet at work, remember: from this speed very soon you will stop being satisfied with a slow life, and we have no other. You will become irritable and demanding; you risk not waiting for your loved one because she is only a person, not a cited picture on the monitor.

Therefore, the negative effects of social media are enlisted as the following: effect on mood and sleep (insomnia), anxiety, and stress. Furthermore, such networks negatively affect self-esteem and may lead to psychological disorders.