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Social media has become an integral part of our life. Someone is utilizing this platform for their growth and someone is using it for the same purpose but they don't know when they forget their goal and fall into the ‘Social Media Trap’.
After listening to the word social media, two to three names of social media platforms come to our mind, and most of them are acquired by a giant parent company Meta(earlier to be known as Facebook). It was started in February 2004, and it was seen as a revolution in that newborn category, and it proved to be a revolution. After that companies like Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram, Snapchat came into the market. Facebook acquired Instagram and Whatsapp in 2012 and 2014 respectively.
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There are lots of benefits of using social media and even more drawbacks than that. Let’s first lookout at some of the benefits of social media:
To grow our business/startup:
You can build your brand by only posting regularly and interacting with your audience, and the best part of social media is that it will show your post audience who are interested in your product. If your content and post stand enough to get them, it can drive high sales, traffic and if they like your service then in no time and minimum efforts possible, you can win their trust and they will become your loyal customers.
Social Media helps your brand to socialize. If anyone sees your brand in an offline store after seeing your social media posts or ad, they will easily buy your product or use your service because your brand now socializes with them like a human. You can also partner with the influencers and get their interested audiences also, use hashtags to give shape to your content, and give replies to your audience’s comments, this will help you to engage your audience with your brand.
Build relationships:
Building quality relationships with anyone is now easier than ever with the help of social media. It allows you to easily connect with your loved ones and be a part of their happiness. If your old school friend or childhood friend is not in contact with you, you can easily connect with them on social media, this is one of the best feelings to meet your old friends. In a study, it is found that people are freer to talk in chats as compared to the call or personal meets, so it’s building a positive relationship from both ends.
Educate yourself:
By following some of the educational content channels or pages, you can learn anything with the help of social media without any charge. From finance to cooking, you have access to plenty of skills to explore every day. Now every person who is willing to learn the skill and doesn’t have money can also learn those skills and social media gives an equal platform to every section of society. It also helps us to keep up to date with the world, when we need an update on any topic we can easily find it on social media. You can also make your content without giving charge to companies, instead, you will charge them for running ads on your profile.
Be an Influencer:
Social media gives you a chance to be like a superstar by your thoughts and your content. Now there is a minimum difference between a social media influencer and a celebrity, and in fact, those influencers are getting roles in the movies and web series. By being an influencer you can also get paid partnerships with brands which allows you to stick with this profession.
Easier Communication:
It gives strength to the voice of common people and allows everyone to contact anyone easily from a celebrity to a business tycoon, and they are listening to their valid problems and solving them. A celebrity like Sonu Sood is helping destitute people in these tough times. People can raise their voices against the bad decision with just one tweet. Social media trends are helping talented people to show their talent, and that’s the perfect use of social media.
Now, let’s take a look at the dark side of social media:
Increasing Mental Health Cases:
According to a report from Facebook in September 2021 which they researched for 2 years, it describes that teens are more insecure about their body shape after using Instagram, and it is increasing depression and anxiety, which leads to bad mental health. Most parents don’t know that just by using social media their children can be on the hunt for depression. By engaging most of the time in social media you’ll feel lonely and isolated. It affects your behaviour, you’ll be irritated by your family members all the time. If you’re doing so, it’s time to re-check your social media schedule and spend as little time as you can spend on it.
Bullying:
People are judging anyone with their face, body & attire, and abusing them. By doing so they don’t think, because of this behaviour, it can destroy someone’s career some sensitive people also try to commit suicide because of constant bullying over social media. We can be safe from bullying by not hurting any community beliefs, check your post and its caption before posting.
Effects on Physical Health:
Social effects not only affect your mental health but physical health also. Scrolling and surfing on social media tend to make you feel lazy and it triggers more sadness in your life. According to research on college students, students who use social media excessively were found to increase in CRP (C-reactive protein), due to this headache, chest pain, and back pain will occur and it also predicts serious illnesses like certain cancers, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.
If you’re addicted to social media, the effects of it in the long term can be harmful as the addiction to smoke and alcohol.
Dividing Community:
Social media is now becoming the medium to spread hate towards a community for some people. These toxic people are sharing the post on a particular community that their community is going to end in upcoming years like this, to save your community please like and share this post. We can only stop these types of hatred posts by not forwarding them and reporting them on that app itself.
Privacy Concern:
By giving information to a particular company, by hacking any company server hackers can get all of your details in just a minute. This won’t happen usually but you can be the victim of a cyber fraud scam, by this they will send you a message that you won our lucky jackpot for sending prize money in your bank they need your account details, by doing so you’ll lose all your current savings to the scammers.
Everything has its pros and cons but how we use that thing will decide the positive and negative impact of that work. Using social media only for your work and for gaining information worked as a catalyst in your growth. If you are addicted to it, try to isolate yourself from social media and spend your precious time with your family and friends, and then after a break, you’ll feel less addicted to it.