Have you ever thought of a world without social media in the 2000’s? Social media has affected adults and teens since 1997, when the first website for social media was created which was called ‘Six Degrees’. It was used to make a profile and connect with others, granted they had no idea how they changed the world. Social media started off mainly harmless, just to meet new people. It had grown into something more, something worse. Social media such as Snapchat, Instagram, Reddit, and Twitter had grown alongside other sites. When things grow they grow with good and bad, but social media had no real growth on the good factor but it did on the bad scale.

Social media is a new way to bully people without them knowing or not having to say it to them. This is called cyberbullying, which could include threats, showing hate, or harassment online. It has caused many kids to become depressed, and hate themselves over there new instagram photo that who they thought was their friend just said they are ugly or foul language. This is not okay to make people feel this way or to hurt them more, but it’s what these sites do. Many people are also using an anonymous app such as Lipsi or Tellonym to be even more discreet about it. These apps can be used without an account to say something anonymous about someone. According to a user who had it has been a victim of anonymous cyber bullying, “I put the link on my story and people followed it and said some wonderful things about me, it was great, all fun in games! Some one or people I don’t know had said some harsh words such as calling me attention seeking, or that I should kill myself, but it was just a few, some people started defending me but it still hurt to think someone would say that to me.” Sierra Wilson age 15 had told me. She had been told abusive things but wasn’t able to find out who said it, which is disturbing to never know who said it.

Social media is also giving people unrealistic expectations and negative body image. “ It paints an idealized picture of what life should be like. There’s constant comparison between what one posts and what others post. If one doesn’t get as many likes, or validation points as we can call it. One might feel as if society’s expectations aren’t being met. This can lead to decreased self-esteem and make it’s users unhappy.”(Romero, Chantal.)

Instagram models are a big trend and everyone loves to look at them, everyone wants to talk to them, and everyone wants to be them. Teens and adults try hard to be like them, look like them wear clothes like them. They waist parts of their lives trying to be who they aren’t and hating who they are. ‘I’m not skinny enough’,’I can’t afford that makeup or clothing brand’, and ‘I don’t have a curvy enough body’ are the typical things mainly girls feel and say looking at pictures thinking they aren’t gorgeous just the way they are. On snapchat the public stories know how to get to people, they say what guys are doing wrong on dates and how they need to be perfect which makes girls look at guys who aren’t just like how they say they are not good for their flaws. Or you can’t go 5 snaps in a story without seeing a ‘Get skinny in 20 days’ targeting the people who are already insecure. Which just seeing these could lead to anorexia, bulimia, depression, or even raging jealousy “The more we use social media, the less happy we seem to be. One study a few years ago found that Facebook use was linked to both less moment-to-moment happiness and less life satisfaction—the more people used Facebook in a day, the more these two variables dropped off. The authors suggest this may have to do with the fact that Facebook conjures up a perception of social isolation, in a way that other solitary activities don’t.” (Walton, Alice G.) Although they are mainly focused on getting people's attention to show them ‘this new product’ to make them how they think they should be by manipulating their emotions. They cover it up by saying it is for entertainment and sometimes it is, but the sad truth is that it normally isn’t.

 Many people would defend social media by saying it gives teens confidence or that it helps people connect with family and friends from far away and that people meet new friends. That person is forgetting a big thing, “We define stalking as unwanted or obsessive behavior toward an individual intended to frighten or coerce. This can include bombarding the individual with texts, emails, phone calls or gifts, showing up at someone’s house or workplace, explicit or implicit threats, blackmail or even sexual assault.” “Stalking in the Age of Social Media.”  Stalking and harassing is a huge thing that people sometimes overlook, this happens to so many women and men. Social media has made it much easier to stalk someone because they can watch over what they are posting, but the people who post where they are it makes it easier to find them. Many people could be followed and watched or even threatened from the fact that social media makes finding people much easier. Social media is also being used to catfish others. Some may say ‘Oh, well some of the best friends are made online!’ some are, but it is super common to be catfished. “A catfish banks on this shortsightedness and shapes his or her profile(s) to serve us exactly what we want. They're emphatic, they're sympathetic, and they're like-minded. The manipulation is so subtle that we don't realize the ways in which the "click" that is the hallmark of a relationship is being orchestrated.” (D'Costa, Krystal.)  We never really know who we are talking to when we meet online. Many people don’t know how to know if who they are talking to is real, or they don’t care to learn because they met their soulmate or their new best friend.

Social media is a dark and scary, the reason why we don’t think of this more is because we want to stay in the unknown where everything is okay. Although there are only a few main reasons why Social media is harmful, there are a lot of ones not normally talked about. This is affecting everyone, and many people can’t imagine a world without social media. To stop the suffering of many people we need to cut down on social media. We could spend less time on it and not focus or take the ones that are especially harmful out. We could only post every now and then to connect with our family, but not use it as a way to make people imagine your life greater than there’s by posting how great it is just to show you’re better Imagine a world without social media, no cyberbullying, no harassment, less self hate. Would it be worth getting rid of connecting online?

Works Cited

Romero, Chantal. “Social Media Creates Unrealistic Life Expectations.” Talon Marks, 4 May 2016.

“Stalking in the Age of Social Media.” USC News, 17 Feb. 2018.

D'Costa, Krystal. “Catfishing: The Truth About Deception Online.” Scientific American Blog Network, 25 Apr. 2014.

Walton, Alice G. “6 Ways Social Media Affects Our Mental Health.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 3 Oct. 2017.