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The Pros and Cons of Social Media
Written by: Nicholas
Edited by: Teacher Mel
Social media can be defined as various online platforms that allow for people from all walks of life to create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content. These online platforms include Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter, just to name a few. Social media is a double-edged sword, with benefits such as helping loved ones stay in touch and showcasing kind deeds with the potential of making them viral; on the other hand, there are disadvantages such as promoting impulsive and mindless demeanours, as well as unrealistic body images.
Social media helps people to stay connected with their friends and family who are scattered across the globe. When friends and family members post pictures and videos about their daily happenings, ventures and vacations, we get to know about what they have experienced. This allows us to keep in touch despite the great distances and perhaps even live vicariously through them. Long lost friends might also be able to reconnect through friend networks. In addition, Skype, Whatsapp, Facebook and Line provide free video and voice calling services, allowing loved ones located in different parts of the world to stay connected.
Furthermore, social media can highlight good deeds and propagate kindness. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, there were several Singaporeans who reached out their helping hands to frontline workers and struggling groups of people by rallying help and raising funds through social media. Some even took it upon themselves to leverage on Facebook and Instagram. They created accounts to promote elderly hawkers who were not tech savvy and hard hit by the pandemic, so as to garner support from Singaporeans and help their businesses stay afloat. Posts from these accounts are widely spread and even picked up by news outlets, which further fuelled support from well-meaning Singaporeans. As a result, these hawkers, frontline workers and struggling groups of people managed to get a silver lining.
However, social media also makes reckless and irresponsible acts spread like wildfire. There was once a local TikToker who broke into a zoo enclosure to film a foolish video, causing him to become a overnight ‘celebrity’ among the young and impressionable. Popular social media challenges bring about health and safety risks to naive participants. A particular challenge urged participants to take a tub of ice cream off a supermarket shelf, before quickly licking it before putting it back for other unsuspecting customers to purchase. Such acts should be condemned, especially in a pandemic, as pathogens can spread through these. However, it is undeniable that some may be inspired to follow suit and create similar videos, risking their safety and others’ health for the sake of becoming an internet sensation.
In addition, social media promotes unrealistic body images. One use of social media is being able to follow celebrities, giving us ordinary people a glimpse into their daily lives. With the large amount of fans that these celebrities have, they would naturally have large followings on social media platforms. When these celebrities post heavily filtered pictures of themselves or send out consistent messaging of ‘the perfect body’, the easily influenced minds of the youth might think that they do not look good enough, leading teens to think more critically of their bodies, causing them to lose self-esteem or take more drastic approaches – like extreme dieting and workouts – to become like their idols.
In conclusion, social media is a double-edged sword; being a boon by helping people stay connected to their loved ones and shining a light on others’ good deeds, but also a bane by promoting impulsive and mindless demeanours, as well as unrealistic body images. Although social media has its downsides, I believe that with adequate education regarding how we should take in information on social media, social media can be a place for positivity to shine.
