For the majority of the history of humankind, communication between individuals was conducted via face-to-face contact. This allowed for the formation of meaningful relationships where all conversation was done in person, not through a screen. The past 150 years have seen an unprecedented surge in the number of communication technologies, the newest and one of the most profound being social media. As user numbers have increased and the effects of social media are analyzed, we are beginning to see trends in social media that suggests a plethora of negative impacts, the most significant in areas of relationship health, mental cognition, and information distribution. The most startling fact is that the majority of social media users are unaware of the ills brought on by decreased face-to-face interaction. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, although beneficial in some respects, are for the most part detrimental to our overall wellbeing.
Admittedly, social media has a few benefits; the first significant advantage is that it can lower the cost of communication between businesses and customers. Before the advent of social media, small and large businesses alike were forced to market their products and services through expensive campaigns that often required either radio or television communication. These television and radio-based campaigns were not only costly but were also impersonal and brief. One of the only other option for marketers to reach their customers was print-based advertising, but this too became an unhelpful avenue because the general population grew numb to seeing advertisements in the morning papers and magazines. Enter social media, a technology that allows marketers connect with their target consumers not only on a mass scale but typically for free. Yes, there are paid options for businesses to promote their advertisements, but the majority of marketing is done on social media is unpaid and organic (Bell). Whereas before brands were spending millions of dollars for airtime on radio stations and large TV networks, they can now accomplish the same thing by sending out a tweet or an Instagram post to a broader audience.
Social media has another important benefit, in that it allows for easier tracking and catching of criminals. The more widespread use of social media has allowed law enforcement to use various platforms to catch and prosecute criminals. According to a recent study, 74% of federal, state, and local law enforcement workers believe that “social media expedites and helps solve crimes and catch criminals more quickly” (LexisNexis). Another survey by the Federal Association of Chiefs of Police discovered that 86% of police departments use social media to help solve crimes. The Philadelphia Police Department was one of the first units to add a Twitter tracking unit and use social media platforms to arrest criminals that bragged about their crimes on social media. Postings on social media sites have also helped in the prosecution and conviction of a number of crimes, including: a semi-professional football player charged with inappropriate activity with a minor in the UK in 2017, a gang charged with the beating of a homosexual couple in New York, and rioting hockey fans in Canada (Dalke). These scenarios find the connected nature of social media extremely beneficial, and as social media platforms advance, wider capabilities will be available to law enforcement across the world. These uses of social media by law enforcement are promising for the future handling of criminal acts, but they do not overcome the harm caused by social media on human interaction. Social media, by and large, is harmful to human interaction and connectivity.
Social media, although with some benefit, is for the most part detrimental to human connectivity and interaction. The first significant harmful impact of social media is the fact that it takes up working cognition. Humans, as outlined in David Glenn’s article, only have a limited amount of cognitive ability available for completing tasks; the implication of this suggests that we, as a species, are inefficient multitaskers. As stated in David Glenn’s article, humans generally have a low level of competence in regard to multitasking, “Beyond a fairly low level of multitasking, everyone’s performance breaks down.” (Glenn). Before social media, there were no major distractions to direct attention away from the professor during lecture or during studying. Now, computers and other tools that students use to complete work are flooded with distractions as social media use is prevalent among these forms of technology. Students, now more than ever, have the ability to surf their Twitter and Facebook feeds during lecture, and although they may think they can pay attention to class and multitask on social media at the same time, a famous 1956 study completed by George A. Miller suggests otherwise, “humans; working memory-capacity is limited to roughly seven units. Beyond this, cognition ability significantly decreases.” (Glenn). The findings of this study, along with recent research conducted that focuses on social media use in the classroom demonstrate that social media has a negative impact on grades and student cognition because the various platforms decrease individuals’ ability to focus on class discussions and assignments intensely. Another side effect of prevalent social media use is that information can spread easily across platforms and networks, especially news that is false in nature.
Another harmful impact of social media on human connectivity is the fact that social media enables the distribution of unreliable and incorrect information. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook are the main culprits in the spreading of false information, as seen in the 2016 presidential election and other recent events. According to a new study, up to 64% of Twitter users who use the platform for news say that in one way or another they have encountered information that they later found out was not right. Another 16% of these users claimed that they themselves redistributed the false information via retweeting and liking (Rosenstiel). An additional study found that in the months prior to the 2016 US presidential election, fake news articles about Trump and Clinton were shared more than 37.6 million times on Facebook (Allcott). These are startling facts because according to a University of Michigan study, even when fake information is corrected, the number of users who see or share the correction on social media is less than the amount of people who saw or shared the fake information in the first place (Gray). Another case of “misinformation” spreading is seen in the 2014 false reporting of an explosion that occurred in Louisiana (Jack). According to the Lexicon of Lies report, a false story was spread on various Twitter accounts of an explosion happening in a chemical plant in St. Mary’s Parish, Louisiana. The story was covered online via fake news accounts, and local residents were alerted by false text messages. No explosion actually occurred, but because the spread of information was not adequately monitored, the false narrative was able to permeate the local social media scene easily. These examples serve to demonstrate just how easy it is to distribute fake news to mass amounts of people via social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
An additional harmful impact of social media on human connectivity is seen in the fact that the use of social media is correlated with personality and brain disorders. A University of Pittsburgh report concluded that social media use was “greatly associated with greater levels of depression” amongst users aged between 17 and 33 (Lin). Another study reported that addictive social media usage reflects higher levels of narcissistic personality traits, specifically in users who spend most of their time on sites like Instagram where “sensationalized and unrealistic life portrayals increase feelings of inferiority” (Andreassen). Graduate researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder also discovered that “interruptions due to phone notifications cause lack of attention and hyperactivity in the general population with access to cellular devices.” The same study also found that 41% of adolescents who spend more than four hours on social media platforms on a normal day reportedly suffer from mental health problems compared with 22% who spend little to no time on the platforms (Office for National Statistics). The Ted talk “Is Social Media Good For You?” strengthens the claims of the studies listed above, as “social media make us feel bad because we compare ourselves with other users who are posting unrealistic representations of their lives” (TedxTalks). These findings are alarming because they all shine direct light on the fact that social media undeniably causes both feelings of inferiority and depression in healthy social media consumers. These findings also suggest that the hyperactive nature of apps like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram lead to attention disorders like ADHD and ADD. This problem hints at a larger problem of social media: it cuts down the amount of genuine face-to-face interaction users shared prior to widespread use of apps like Facebook and Twitter.
One other detrimental impact of social media on human interaction and connectivity is that social media reduces the amount of face-to-face interaction between humans. Because people can communicate behind screens and profiles without in-person-interaction, there is less of a need for individuals to talk naturally like our ancestors have been doing for the last thousands of years. According to a USC Annenberg study, researchers found that the percentage of people reporting less face-to-face contact with family and friends rose from 9% in 2001 to 35% in 2012 (USC Annenberg). The same study also found that 33% of social media users texted and interacted during one of the most crucial times for human connection: meals. Instead of interacting and strengthening bonds, social media users reported that they instead were browsing their feeds on various sites like Instagram and Twitter (USC Annenberg). The numbers in the study suggest that levels of human interaction will only decrease as time goes on because individuals will be able to communicate on social media platforms more easily. There is no substitute for old-fashioned in-person interaction, and unless users realize this ill of social media, face-to-face conversations will continue to dwindle.
Another harmful impact of social media on humans and their connectedness is seen in trends that suggest students who are heavy users of social media tend to have lower grades and lower overall GPAs. This is due to the fact that students are not as attentive during lectures and presentations as they are consumed with browsing their social media accounts. According to a recent report, 31% of students admitted that using social media while completing assignments lowers the overall quality of their work (The Common-Sense Census). The attention gap created by social media use is also demonstrated in the GPAs of heavy social media users vs. normal to low social media users: students who used social media had an average GPA of 3.07 while non to low users had an average GPA of 3.82; quite a significant difference (Kirschner). The same study also reported that students who used social media while studying scored, on average, 21% lower on tests. One report found that in schools that introduced a ban on cell phones (main form of social media consumption), student performance improved by a whopping 25.7% (Murphy). All of these findings show the culmination of the impacts of social media on human attention and connectivity. Unless something is done to slow down or reverse the decreasing levels of direct human connection and raising levels of attention deficits, social media will continue to harm the heavy consumers of social media.
Social media, although beneficial for narrow uses, is for the most part harmful to relationship health, mental cognition, and information distribution. Current high trending social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram cause individuals to become less connected to the real world; this leads to decreased levels of both happiness and attention. These platforms also foster the spreading of false information, as seen in the 2016 presidential election. Future generations should approach said social networking platforms with caution and knowledge of their detrimental effects. The current trends regarding social technologies will continue to lead humans down a path of isolation and detriment unless meaningful action is taken. Nothing will ever compete with the benefits of genuine face-to-face interaction, so next time you find yourself itching to check your phone during a meal or time with friends, put it away: enjoy the in-person contact you have with your network, and be mindful of the ill effects of social media.
2018-3-24-1521911370