The Dark Side of Social Media: Privacy, Cyberbullying, and Mental Health

On 26 September 2023

social media

Social media is everywhere in modern life, from Slack for work, to WhatsApp for complaining about work to friends, to Spotify for winding down after work. While we may take this for granted, I believe it is part of a deteriorating trend and could be detrimental to society - and not enough people are talking about it.

What we now consider as 'social media' has been around for so long now that its roots go back farther into the past than the age of most modern-day users, considering that the first big platform, MySpace, came out way back in 2003.



Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2019) - "The rise of social media". Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-media' [Online Resource]

The average number of social media accounts is 8.4 per person in 2020.

Interconnectivity

Social media first rose to fame on the tag line of interconnectivity - gone were the days of writing old paper letters and waiting weeks on end for a response via the postal system; now you can simply message someone online and get an instant response. Convenience was the name of the game, but companies didn't stop there. Take the simple person-to-person messaging system and spread it out to the whole world, and suddenly you have a huge place where people can meet complete strangers and also share their work to the whole world. Of course, this made it so that social media was almost saturated with tons upon tons of creative art and works.

While this is indeed a great thing, this 'convenience' can spiral out of control. Suppose a student is tasked with writing a poem. It would be much simpler to just take a glance at their Pinterest recommendations, find something good, and “make sure to change it up a bit”. When you look it at this way, you realise that social media poses a threat to creativity and originality on a broader scale by encouraging it.

The dark side

on that topic, social media is inherently designed to hook you: its sole aim is to get you to spend hours on end scrolling through useless videos, via numerous psychology tricks and so called 'dark patterns'. The best we can do to combat this is to simply be aware of it and be mindful in consuming social media content

This type of sharing with the world also means that social media is full of the things people people want the world to see: the cherrypicked, joyful moments of their life. Seeing everyone have an amazing time every time you want to unwind from work will just make you put your phone down feeling less relaxed than before. It leaves you feeling anxious, wondering what great things you're missing while doing you're boring work. This is such a big problem that it has its own term: FOMO - the Fear Of Missing Out. And this isn't some wild shot in the dark - it's something science has proven. for example, A study published in 2019 suggests a strong and consistent association between social media use and depressive symptoms in young people. Another study shows that social media use increases feelings of being excluded from social activities.

and then, we have cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is when someone uses the internet, like social media sites or text messages, to intentionally hurt or upset someone else. It can happen at any time of the day and can feel like it's never-ending because it can reach a person even when they're alone at home. Cyberbullying can take many forms, like mean messages, spreading rumors, or posting unkind pictures or comments for others to see. Because it's sometimes done anonymously, cyberbullying can be pretty scary and its effects can hurt a person deeply. Also due to the anonymity, its found very commonly: According to a 2020 study by Statista, 64% of people between the ages of 12 and 20 have experienced cyberbullying on social media.

The immense risk of privacy breach is a major problem with social media. Platforms collect an abundance of personal data with minimal oversight or safety. The past has shown that this data can be leaked, causing serious issues. For example, the facebook - Cambridge Analytica scandal came to light, where Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm, acquired and used the personal data of millions of Facebook users without their consent for political advertising during the 2016 US Presidential Campaign. Also, in 2020, many high profile twitter accounts including those of Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk, were hacked to promote fake crypto investment scams.
And who knows what's yet to come? Just take a look at the amount of information the new threads app from instagram collects:

Just imagine the damage it would do if any one of this info got leaked, let alone many. Companies collect personal information - be aware of what you share with them.

Nn a broader level, its also important to remember that humans, by nature, are social animals: we seek validation from the tribe, since our life used to depend on it. By retreating further and further into online conversations, we start to lose the crucial face to face conversations we need for our minds to function properly.

To conclude, I think its safe to say that most modern day social media poses more harm than actual benefits - Lack of creativity, privacy and security, cyberbullying, addiction, FOMO, anxiety, and depression. And this isn't it - There's way more to talk about that's not covered here.

What can we do about it?

Despite this, it is undeniable that social media is a crucial part of everyday life now, and its not so simple as getting rid of all social media and calling it a day. However, there are still things we can do:

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