Social Media - The Good, The Bad, And The Balanced
It’s no secret that today’s world is largely shaped by social media. We post photos of our vacations on Instagram, keep in touch with family on Facebook, and express our public opinions on Twitter or Reddit.
However, not everything social media brings to our lives is good. Some of the aspects of social media have been shown to have a detrimental effect on mental health. Others blame our ever-shortening attention spans on trying to keep our thoughts under 140 characters.
How We Rely On Social Media
At the crux of social media lies interconnectedness, interactivity, and an emphasis on user-generated content. Today, using social media has become pretty much a necessity. If you want to get a job(especially in more tech-centered or competitive areas) you’ll be required, or at least asked for your LinkedIn account. If you want to connect with an estranged or distant member of your family, you’ll probably need to use FaceBook or Instagram. If you want to stay on top of social events and tides that can change without a day’s notice- you’ll need to use Reddit or Twitter. If you’re a young adult, you’ll need to use Snapchat or Whatsapp to connect with your friends.
In essence, social media has clawed itself into the nooks and crannies of our everyday lives to the point where we rely on it for much more than chatting with people. We use it for employment, we use it for news, we even use it for company meetings these days.
Furthermore, it’s hard not to notice how much social media affects the way we form our opinions. With clickbait titles grabbing our attention left and right, and issues seeming closer to us than they ever have, it’s hard to avoid biased perspectives. Because of this, many of us will find ourselves making opinions based on misrepresented, or even outright flawed data.
How Does Social Media Affect Children?
A child’s mind is a fragile thing, and it’s hard to argue how being bombarded by unrealistic beauty and financial standards can be good for them. The content put out on social media influencers often promotes an entirely unrealistic lifestyle, and there’s no problem with that for the people that understand it. However, children do not, and they’ll start to compare themselves to these standards almost instinctively.
Outside of this, despite the name “social” media doesn’t seem to be helping children’s social development. In fact, psychologists have found a significant negative effect on children spending over 3 hours a day on social media. The effect is even more pronounced in teenagers, where only 1 hour a day can have a negative impact.
This is not to say that there aren’t some positives. Social media helps shier kids interact with their fellows, and it helps our children stay informed- as long as their sources are well-curated.
Lack Of Accountability
The anonymity and freedom provided by social media can be as much of a vice as it can be a boon. Everyone, even our idols, have flaws, and social media gives us the easiest place to share those flaws with the world. This is the main cause of toxic environments created by social media.
If a large influencer has a toxic opinion, their fans that lack a strong opinion on the matter, or simply those that are too young to understand will often jump to agreeing with them. This can also lead to outsting those that disagree, or even cyberbullying. These are extremely detrimental to an individual’s mental health and our society as a whole.
This, together with anonymity leads to social media becoming a safe haven for extremists. They can freely share theirs, and influence our opinions without a hitch. On media like Reddit or Tumblr, this is all done completely anonymously, so you’ll never be held accountable for anything you say.
Is There A Balance To Be Found?
Now, this is not to say that social media is all bad. It’s still a great place to share opinions and connect with people. Being able to talk to people halfway across the world is a great benefit, and so is all of the information and inspiration it puts at our fingertips. However, social media does have some significant flaws such as the lack of accountability it presents to people, our ever-dwindling attention spans, and its effect on children when not used in moderation.
So, how do we strike a balance between the good and the bad, and make sure that we get more out of social media than it takes out of us? The natural step, many believe, will be taking social media to the Metaverse.
This contributes to solving part of the issue with children, as VR and the Metaverse make social media interactions much more similar to real-life connections. This can also help with minimizing the degree of unreasonable standards put on our youth. However, the concern that the issue with Web 2 social media will persist to the Metaverse isn’t entirely unfounded.
Some Metaverse social media companies like Looking Glass Labs are looking to balance freedom of speech and the avoidance of toxicity. They’re looking to introduce more accountability and stricter regulations on what you should and shouldn’t be able to say. Interacting with someone’s high-quality 3D avatar is a lot closer to interacting with a real person than a text message on Facebook as well. The range of motion and expression 3D models provide is also likely to help alleviate issues with children.
Conclusion
While the positive effects of social media on our lives are apparent, there are also quite a few negatives that come with it. The lack of interaction with a 3D human being can be quite taxing on our mental state- especially for children. The issue of toxicity is also everpresent on social media, with everyone being free to propagate unrealistic standards, or straight-up demeaning opinions.
As social media moves to the Metaverse, certain companies like LGL are looking to put a stop to as many of these behaviors as possible, while still ensuring that we can interact with each other freely. They’re also taking steps to implement 3D models of ourselves into the Metaverse to help the social interaction feel that much more real.