There’s several positive and negative aspects about the usage of social media. In this post, I’ll be focusing on the negative side and bring to light some concerns regarding misuse of the social platform and how it can affect us on a personal level .
Social media can be deceiving. Even if we aren’t aware of it, there’s always some type of manipulation and control. What a social network can do for someone is create a profile of any given characteristics and qualities, and convert that into an active member of that network. Being able to identify whether the person featured on the profile actually exists or its just a fictional, made-up character is nearly impossible. Predators can easily target kids by pretending to be a friend. They can disguise themselves behind a picture of a pretty face and showcase their adventurous, cool and fun lifestyle; as someone genuinely interested in becoming your friend. Young teens and pre-teens are especially vulnerable to being victimized by pedophiles and psychopaths. Their gullibility and lack of experience makes them easy prey. As a result, it’s become a real problem amongst millennials.
Another common problem with social media is cyber-bullying. Its probably the most notorious problem among social media users. Many people fall victim to threats, hateful comments and humiliation against their body image, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death of kids 10-14 years of age. Furthermore, more and more people contemplate committing suicide each year due to cyberbullying. The problem is, its hard to hold cyber bullies accountable if their identity and existence isn’t even validated or confirmed. Hiding behind a technological device makes putting people down with hateful words much more doable.
There’s many more factors that makes cyberbullying a growing epidemic. Stay tuned to hear about ways you can help prevent cyberbullying and reduce the number os suicides among kids and teens.
Social media: The good and the bad 