The positive view:
In my point of view, we can prevent social media from affecting self-worth. We can teach children how to not to get affected by what they see on a screen. We also can make social media less of a fantasy and more of a reality: we keep portraying something that doesn’t even resemble the reality. If we change that, it’s very possible that populations’ self-worth won’t be injured.
People should realize there's plenty of happiness, beauty, and success to go around. Just because you see someone else having a great life doesn't mean your life isn't great or you can't have as awesome of a life. The more greatness in the world, the merrier. Realizing this will make people understand how worthy they are, and diminish the impact in their self-esteem.
Realize that social media is the highlight reel, not the behind-the-scenes. Everything has upsides and downsides, and the population needs to stop focusing on your downsides or the constant upsides that media portrays and focus on their own accomplishments. A job, trip or a body can be portrayed in a very utopic way and very easily.
A change in peoples’ mindset is crucial for these, for example: Younger generations should be proactive instead of reactive. When they start comparing themselves to others in a negative way, they're only reacting to the situation. Instead of feeling down about the way their life is going, they should just do something. That would diminish social media’s impact on population’s self-esteem and self-worth.
In conclusion, if we shift our mindset to a more aware and positive one, we will see that our self-confidence is not so fragile and is not something as trivial as social media that should shake it or diminish it. The problem is not social media itself but the way it is perceived, and that is totally preventable.
The negative view:
You’ll be surprised to learn the negative effects of social media are both physical and mental. It can change your perception of the world and yourself, and not always for the better. And the thing is that you just cannot prevent it.
Spending too long on social media could be adversely affecting your mood. In fact, you’re more likely to report poor mental health, including symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Before social media, bullying was something only done face-to-face. However, now, someone can be bullied online anonymously. Today everyone knows what cyberbullying is, and most of us have seen what it can do to a person. And since screens hide our faces, you can even be unpleasant, harmful and disrespectful without realizing it.
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is a phenomenon that was born at the same time as Facebook—and it’s one of the most common negative effects of social media. FOMO is basically a form of anxiety that you get when you’re scared of missing out on a positive experience or emotions that someone else is getting, and it is fuelled by constant contact with social media.
Today, body image is an issue for many people any gender. Of course, seeing those perfect in accordance with the society standards people on a daily basis makes people conscious about how different they look from those pictures.
On top of increased rates of anxiety and depression, spending too much time on social media can lead to poor sleep. Numerous studies have shown that increased use of social media has a negative effect on your sleep quality.
In conclusion, social media have all these effects on what it comes to society´s state of mind and self-worth, and it cannot be prevented unless society controls its dimensions or steps back from it all.
By: Beatriz Teixeira
Comentários