THE IMPACT OF EXCESSIVE USAGE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA

about 4 years ago

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog at this hour. There have been a high increase in the usage of the social media in recent years by different age groups for different purposes. It is used for keeping in touch with friends, family and business associates, get latest news and gossip updates, watch entertaining videos and pictures and so on. Well, sit back, relax and enjoy all that I have packaged for your reading pleasure.

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There have been quite a number of indication that the constant use of social media can have effects on the user's mental health and overall general well-being. Some of the effects may be envy, depression, loneliness, addiction and the likes. The social media is a beautiful place to be, no doubt, but the problem is that we often do not know when to stop. It offers a lot such that a young man or woman can spend the whole day using it as far as the gadget is charged and have sufficient internet connection.

Social media have a way of affecting a person's self-esteem and confidence. I will explain what I mean by that. I have a friend who is fond of updating his WhatsApp stories every now and then with different pictures he took during the day. I have been with him on several occasions when he was lamenting about the low views he recorded on his status. He sometimes feel the pictures were not attractive enough for people to view them and in a way it affects his confidence as a person. He could decide to go some days without posting because of this feeling. This is one way social media can affect people's lifestyle.

On the other hand, social media can also boost a person's self-esteem and confidence if he or she gets a favorable online reception, that is, there are many people talking about the content posted, thousands of likes and retweet(repost). It is a human nature that when you get nice comments from people you'd be motivated to do more. But, the bad comments which was sent from the keyboard of a troll somewhere may ruin your mood especially if you are easily affected by what say. Trolling is a social media problem that a lot of people have to deal with on a daily basis. It have affected so many people's life till date because they were unable to handle it effectively.

For young people who use the social media for more than six hours in a day, we may discover that they may lose the touch of socializing with people outside the social media. I have met people who post great contents on their social media platforms and engage with people on the comments section effectively who you'd think are outspoken but the reverse is the case in the outside world. There are trolls who would say bad things about other people hiding under their keyboard but would not have the confidence to repeat the exact same words in the presence of the person. In short, social media can make people become a shadow of themselves if the usage is too much.

Overuse of social media can also affect a person when they are afraid of losing out on the new trends in fashion, food, music, lifestyle, etc. Instagram, for instance is a hot spot for seeing the latest shoes, bags, wristwatches that people showoff. Due to the fear of staying relevant, you may be glued to your phone to constantly check for these latest trends. Even when you are in an important meeting on on the hospital bed you will not feel satisfied until you open your social media applications. This kind of behavior may also turn you into a person who is living a fake life. You may have to spend beyond your means to acquire these things that you see on social media.

Well, most of us are guilty of using social media to getaway from unpleasant situations. For example, when you are bored or in a bad mood and you login to your social media you are only trying to use it to get better. This can be a bad way of coping with unpleasant situations every time. The healthy way of coping with these situations may be to engage in more productive activities like speaking to a person, taking a walk, cook a nice meal, etc. The social media may do more harm if the content you come across are not what will actually make you feel better.

It may be time to reduce your social media usage if you observe that it is beginning to detach you from associating with people outside the social media or it is distracting you from the things you ought to do or even affecting your mental health.

However, social media does have some positive effect on the user especially when it is used in moderation.

All contents are originally written by me, @williams-owb

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Williams Oluseyi is a Linguist by discipline from one Africa's Most Prestigious Citadel of Learning, Obafemi Awolowo University. He developed interest for blogging at very early stage which motivated him to study English Language in College. He is a prolific writer, an inquisitive and judicious reader, to say the least. To get his daily bread, he is currently working in a Logistics company in Nigeria.