1. Decrease in Social Gatherings
Or when you’re with a group of friends and 85% or more of your friends are just glued to their phones and not actually socially communicating? I bet this happens to most of you.
Thinking back to 10 years ago when we used to come out of school there was always a buzz of what to do with friends whether it was going to the park, hurling field or going for walks and cycles etc. There was always something to do and somewhere to go. Now a days I see family members and other young people glued to the phone as they walk out of the school yard. The multiple channels of social media have made it easier and quicker for people to chat, gossip and share live photos over the phone. The younger generation are dictating their life’s to social media and forget about meeting people face to face for a catch up. Nevertheless when it comes to meeting someone face to face our future generation won’t develop the social skills that acquire them to do that, as they are being brought up to an environment depending on social media accounts for interaction with people.
2. Impact on Stress Levels and Depression
Certain social media sites like Instagram is always posting articles based around how to achieve the perfect body. In these articles the models always have to be a size 2 and their skin is made look flawless due to photo-shopped pictures. This makes it very difficult to achieve the perfect body and this will have a diverse effect on peoples self confidence.
A recent survey that was aimed at adolescents aged 14 to 24 stated that Instagram is the worst social media channel for a person’s well being and mental health. Respondents stated that Instagram can make you feel that your body isn’t good enough as we are constantly comparing our bodies to other people who use filters to edit their pictures just to make them look that extra bit special.
3. Cyber Bullying
The number of teenagers and children that have been harassed through online social media has increase by 88% in five years. This evidence was reported by a leading children charity.
4. Decrease in Physical Activity
Young adolescents are now more inclined to spend more time using social media accounts and technology rather than going outside and exercising. If adolescents spend more time sitting down watching television or on the laptop this can have a knock on effect to the amount of food they consume. Consequentially this can lead to an increase in an unhealthy lifestyle over time.
As stated earlier it’s a norm for people to check their social media accounts late at night, this can have a destructive effect as it interferes with a person’s sleep pattern. Noteworthy this can immediately impact on a person’s ability to perform. If a person is mentally and physically tired there more inclined to refuse to exercise and be more inclined to sit down and relax.
5. Relationships
The negative influence on online dating is that it is opening a door for online crime to take place. Research from the daily mail indicated that between 2013 and 2015 dating sites were linked to a dramatic 828 criminal cases that were including 88 allegations of rape, 180 violent crimes and 49 sex attacks.
Furthermore there is a harmful side that social media can play on relationships. The extended channels of social and technology are creating more insecurity between couples. Insecurity levels can rise when a man or a woman sees their partner talking to someone of the opposite sex, or constantly liking photos of someone of the opposite sex through these various social media accounts. An increase in insecurity can lead to negative things like jealousy, paranoia etc. Social media has many apps like Facebook, snapchat, what’s app etc this makes it very easy to get in touch with anyone you want whenever you want. Because social media is getting bigger and bigger this could negatively affect our future generation in terms of trust and privacy when it comes to relationships.
6. Catfish
I think we are all aware of fake profiles and I’m sure many of us have received friend requests from men or women from multiple different countries that have no mutual friends. The younger we were the more likely we accepted these fake profiles just to build up our profile. Consequentially the older we get the more mature we become and are more likely to delete these friend requests. Young kids and teenagers are forced into believing that the more friends you have on Facebook and snapchat etc the more popular you are. Fake profilers play off this and target vulnerable people. Our future generation is again put at risk as there is an increase in social media accounts which enables more “cat fishers” to set up fake profiles. These fake profilers can have many negative effects such as viruses or scams and they could also send inappropriate messages which can have immediate circumstances on a person’s self confidence.
In conclusion social media could have many negative effects for our future generation if it continues to take over our lives. Our minds are constantly thinking about what friends are doing online, what pictures they are posting, who likes our photos and how many likes it gets. People have a fear that they will miss out on something that’s online, so they constantly have to keep checking their news feed no matter what hour of the day it is. The 6 factors that were mentioned can all have many negative effects on a person’s mental and physical state. If you feel social media accounts like Facebook and instagram are keeping you awake all night and making you feel anxious or reducing your self esteem it might be important to take a step back and put away your phone or laptop, looking after your psychological health and well being is key to a healthy life.
Author - Edel O'Dwyer
4th Year Recreation and Sport Management Student