Negative Impacts of Social Media

Hi guys, I'm Brittany Willis and this is the negative impacts of social media.

First thing I want to start with is distraction.

So social media can be very distracting because many of us have

various forms of social media on our phones such as facebook or instagram

YouTube, Tiktok Snapchat. Um there's a lot of different platforms.

At least 78% of Americans have at least one

platform that they check on a consistent basis.

And that survey was taken in 2016.

And what platforms that we hold on our phones or on our tablets.

This increases the need for attention that we give our phones on a daily basis.

As

most companies have digital creators

that are used to um they're basically competing with your time via algorithms.

These algorithms are essentially judging the user's decision making.

So it's just um,

judging what you've looked at and interacted

with whether it's liking or watching videos or

stuff that you've clicked on.

They can actually see how long you've viewed even certain post pictures, videos,

commented.

And they use these to create algorithm algorithms which is essentially

um lining up posts that are relevant based on

stuff that you've interacted with in the past.

And these digital creators will actually keep sending you notifications.

That's essentially saying come back to our, you know,

platform and view some more because we think that

we would like what we've set up on your algorithm

the more time you give your phone,

obviously this is gonna go hand in hand with addiction.

Um

many people don't realize that they can be

addicted to social media because it seems like a

rather, you know,

silly or innocent thing um or not that big of a deal because

a lot of people have the content on their phone as well,

um but that addiction is hard to escape and it seems like

the more people are posting and the more we're looking for

likes and um comments and just various

interaction on these posts that we're making,

it's,

it's almost like people are constantly searching

for self validation through these platforms,

which is can be very scary.

Um the impacts of addiction,

so I really liked this photo, as you can see,

it's a family sitting around a dinner table and all of them,

all of them are looking at, you know, either a cell phone or tablet,

and this is directly hindering

and the relationships that they have within each other because they're not using,

you know,

this time to converse about their day or

about exciting milestones that might be happening,

they're just preoccupied with

other things that are in front of them and it kind of seems insignificant, you know,

because you only get a little bit of time with each other,

um so it really is just um kind of alarming, you know, that they're not talking and,

and I know a lot of people can think that

um social media is a great way to just like

free your mind or sit and scroll and it's like,

just

let the worries of the day go.

But ultimately this is going to impact the relationships that

they have with with each other because they're not,

you know, conversing,

like maybe they should be at the end of the day and this is actually going to create,

you know, kind of a domino effect

when our personal relationships in our life,

especially the ones that we have with the people we

live with and I'm assuming based off of a photo.

But um when these relationships are impacted,

that's gonna create some isolation because we're gonna

not feel the need to have these relationships,

not, not the relationships, but not um feel the need to have, you know,

certain human interaction.

And when human interaction decreases isolation obviously increases

the more time we spend on our phone and give, you know,

our phones or social media our free time and this is

essentially going to decrease the physical activity because we're not,

you know, setting down that phone and saying, I have five minutes of free time,

I'm going to go on a walk or I'm gonna go on a run or

Do a quick workout, even, you know, five minutes, 30 minutes, whatever it is.

A lot of times people are gonna try and

decompress by just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling,

which is actually just

you know, not doing much. Um

and this is going to domino into poor performance. So when you're continuously

scrolling and not using that time productively,

that's going to hinder, you know, your performance in work or in school or

because you're not dedicating, you know, the time that you need to do these things

and this goes into um unrealistic expectations.

So social media can be known as a highlight reel,

which means that you're just essentially looking

at the glorified version of everybody's life

because most people don't post about

their flaws and it's obviously uncomfortable.

We all know it's uncomfortable to post about our flaws.

So it's most cases you're looking at just the good parts of people's lives and

um you know,

milestones that they're hitting or just the fun that they're having or whatever.

Um and this can directly relate to comparison fomo and negative feelings.

Now comparison, I liked this little photo kind of explained

um I wish I was as fit as her or I wish I had a career like her.

So these two girls are, you know,

maybe seeing a post or something and they're ultimately comparing

what they think is lacking in their lives to the

good part of somebody else's and that's very detrimental for

mental health um fomo is the fear of missing out.

So you know,

when we have life duties or life responsibilities and we can't always attend,

you know a dinner or a holiday party or you know, even a vacation and

we start to have this like fear of missing out

and we start to feel bad because we are watching,

you know other people posting about the stuff that we want to be at

and that gives us negative feelings you know,

towards ourselves and even towards those people that might have gone, you know,

without us, even if it's not their fault,

but um a lot of us have experienced fomo in some way or some

form at some time um it's very easy to get jealous of other people,

especially when you are looking at a highlight reel.

Um and like I said, that creates

negative feelings.

Um the cycle of negative feelings,

I liked this because it says the person editing

their own photos can be can be impacted.

So this means when you're constantly using you know,

Photoshop or filters and you're editing photos,

it's almost like you're setting up yourself to think that you should look one way

when in reality obviously everybody has flaws

and that's not healthy.

Um People seeing the edited edited images can be impacted as well.

So when you're seeing the highlight reel and you're

seeing the edited images of somebody's you know,

perfect day at the beach or going out or whatever

and you think, oh I don't look like that.

So that starts to create negative feelings within yourself

because you're comparing um the flawed version of yourself

to the perfect version of somebody else.

Um and this creates unattainable beauty standards.

I work

very closely with this on a consistent basis. Um I am a hair and makeup artist

and I do a lot of special events and I work with brides

mostly

And I will say that I see this probably 98% of the time where I have a bride that will

come to me and they show me a picture and

I have to explain to them this has been photoshopped,

the lighting, in this is not accurate um or just you know,

it's been adjusted or filtered or whatever it is and you

have to explain to people like you're a flawed human being,

It's not gonna,

I just don't want you to set up yourself to think

that it's this is gonna be possible because in the picture,

you know, they're editing photos to look like

you know,

barbie, but that's that's not always the case. Um

so all these things can directly impact our mental health and

it's essentially creating, you know,

a crisis for everybody's mental health on our body image.

Um and these unrealistic expectations are very overwhelming.

As I mentioned before,

the filters in Photoshop um lead to body dysmorphia

constantly comparing becomes overwhelming and detrimental for mental health.

Um So as you can see she's, you know, comparing herself in the mirror to what she

thinks she sees, even though that's not that's not how she looks. Um

So it's easy for us to focus on the

negatives about our bodies instead of the positives,

psychological disorders

and the psychological effects can be anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia,

self absorption absorption and more.

Um,

so this is known as the dark side of social media and this stuff that

we feel like is just not really talked about as much as it should be,

at least.

Um

it creates a lot of insecurities on our self esteem and it's detrimental

for our mental health and the more that we give this time,

especially when we're, you know, losing time being physically active.

Um, we're not doing good for our mental health if we're

already struggling with it,

and we're just giving more time to social media instead

of doing something that could be productive because essentially it's

just being counterproductive to continuously look at things that might

be bothering us or might be a trigger for us

and youth. Um, and this is one of the most important

topics of social media is that there's a lot

of Children that have access to these sites,

which is actually very scary.

Um, in the cycle of social media impacts and the

kind of linked this in a little diagram to show us that, like,

one thing is obviously just going to domino into the next thing,

whether it's an adult or whether it's a child and the exposure to social media

once we have more exposure and more exposure and more exposure

adult and Children are ultimately going to suffer from sleep, you know,

insomnia or have a disruption in their sleep patterns.

Um the more that we give time to social media,

especially in young Children,

this is going to decrease room for physical activities, so especially, you know,

when

parents are busy and they give Children a tablet

or they give Children a phone to scroll,

whether it's, you know, just watching youtube or looking at different platforms,

this is creating room that the Children need for that physical activity to,

you know, be playing outside or

doing something that can be very productive

for their development physically and mentally.

Um and that this is going to create sometimes, such as um

an increase of irritability,

it's also going to create anxiety and depression and at a young age that's,

it's very scary to have Children that are dealing with that

um which ultimately in the end is going to impact their brain development,

and that's also very scary,

and the last thing I wanted to touch base on is cyberbullying.

So cyberbullying is detrimental for the well being of our Children.

Um as you can see, there's a graph here

And 78% of people that use Instagram,

of them said that they saw cyberbullying in some way or some form.

So our Children, you know, whether they're six or whether they're 15,

they're being exposed to things,

especially mature content that they really should not

be exposed to at such a young age,

it's ultimately just very scary

and this is my, we're excited,

thank you for watching

Negative Impacts of Social Media

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