There are more and more people out there who decide to stop using social media apps. Whether they are into Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, or other apps, those folks decided that social media‘s downsides outweigh the positive aspects.
Those who perceive social media apps as a waste of time invoke reasons such as addictiveness, lack of ambition in other areas of our lives, and so on. It seems that social media apps are capable of making us less productive and willing to achieve important goals in life. Of course, that’s not necessarily true in the case of all people, as it could depend from person to person. But let’s see why an important part of netizens consider social media apps as a waste of time:
Addictiveness:
It’s easy to become addicted to social media apps, as software such as Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok are based on some powerful algorithms that will try to keep you glued to those apps as much as possible. As a result, a lot of people, especially the young ones, will neglect their important everyday tasks in order to scroll through the photos and posts of those they follow on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and so on.
In other words, the addictiveness of social media apps will cause a lot of distraction as well. It’s easy to get fully immersed in the world of social media and neglect those chores that are more important, unfortunately. A lot of experts have contributed to designing social media apps to be as addictive as possible in order to keep the user glued to them as much as possible.
Spread of misinformation
Social media apps are known to spread a lot of misinformation because just about anyone can post something online these days and gather followers. Adding the powerful algorithms that social media apps such as Instagram or TikTok have, it’s only a matter of time until they create a dangerous polarization in society, meaning groups of people with extremist views on certain subjects such as elections, vaccinations, and so on.
Fake news is everywhere these days, unfortunately, and it has become extremely difficult to say for sure what’s true and what’s not.
Cyberbullying
Perhaps each and every one of us knows a person who has been bullied online, and unfortunately, social media apps are the perfect playground for something like that. When protected by the anonymity of a display, people can feel emboldened to say hurtful things.
Negative impact on mental health
According to some research, excessive use of social media apps can lead to mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and more. Young people are those in particular who deal with such problems, while an important part of them will also go through feelings of loneliness and social isolation as they dive into social media.
Envy and comparison
You don’t need to be the reincarnation of Nikola Tesla to realize that social media apps often present a distorted version of reality in which nobody is their true version of the everyday world. In other words, everybody on social media seems to be pretty, with expensive clothes and cars, cool, with a lot of friends, and so on. But often, those photos are nothing but the result of heavy editing.
People who tend to believe everything they see on social apps will develop feelings of depression, inadequacy, and envy.
Surely, social media can indeed be wonderful and a great source of entertainment as long as you use it correctly. But unfortunately, there seems to be no professional guidance to use Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok without becoming dangerously addicted to them and falling down the rabbit hole.