Social media: Good or bad?

Being an avid user of social media myself, my immediate answer would be that social media is good. I use it on a daily basis to keep in touch with my friends, upload pictures and videos, and use it as a source of entertainment.

Many people, including myself, know about the downsides of social media. However, we ignore the harmful parts and focus only on the positive.

Ryan Halligan was a student who was cyberbullied by many of his classmates whom he thought were his friends. After enduring such treatment for almost a year, Halligan hanged himself.

Stories like these show us what happens when people use social media in the wrong way. However, social media has also been used as a tool for people to come together and do good.

When the Haiti earthquake occurred in 2010, people used Twitter to spread awareness and raise money. It also helped increase the number of volunteers helping in Haiti-related groups as well.

Social media has two obvious sides, which in turn tell us there are two obvious sides to human behavior. We can come to the conclusion that social media is not the problem, but rather it is we who need to make the effort to change and let the beneficial side of social media shine.

Pros

• Spreads information quickly
• Helps people be more social and form new relationships
• Helps businesses
• Helps individuals make change happen
• Helps people feel more “connected”
• Helps people accomplish goals by working together
• Helps people keep in touch
• Easy collaborations

Cons

• Enables spread of false information
• Lack of privacy
• Can lead to stress and offline relationship problems
• Wastes time
• Facilitates cyber bullying
• Can be used inappropriately
• Can harm students’ chances for college admission
• Unintended consequences