PROBLEMS WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

The Internet is seen as a basic need nowadays and it can also be thought of as a part of Maslow’s needs hierarcy. Because human beings are social animals, the need to communicate and socialize with others isparamount/ a priority. Social media rapidly became popular among people because it can be used by a lot of users easily and fast thanks to the Internet. People can communicate with each other all over the world via Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube more easily and faster than any other means of communication. Even though social media helps people to socialize, it creates some significant problems which we are going to discuss in this essay.

    The most important problem is the reality of the information we get from  the Internet and the artificial life we create for ourselves. People who have profiles on social media engage in the virtual world and forget about real life. Most of the time people create different identities on their Internet profiles and this  may be the identify of someone else they want to be. Moreover, there are a lot of fake accounts on social media. Unfortunately, users, especially young people, are influenced by the profiles which are regulated perfectly. All this affects personal development negatively because people always feel inadequate and want to be perfect aAs a result, people in such a generation who are perfectly active in the virtual world via social media but haveproblems with self-expression in the real world are growing up.

     Another problem with social media is that it is the medium for companies to engage in trade because there are security gaps which are exploited by others. However, it does not provide sufficient privacy . Social media sites  keep all the data about us, and companies use it for advertisement through algorithms. For instance, when a user logs in to a shopping website to buy a dress, the system keeps this data and in the future, it suggests another dress which the user may possibly like. As a result, others know  what you like or what you want without getting your permission. This is a simple example. In this way, privacy rights are exploited by not only companies but also unrelated people. Life is yours but others can affect you and make decisions about you.

    To sum up, even though social media is used by ordinary people, it is shapedaccording to great powers who want to affect people in order to achieve financial or political goals. Otherwise, people think that they are becoming more social by sharing something via social media. However it is one-sided communication. When you post something via Facebook or any kind of social media, you cannot feel how it influences others because you are not able to see, hear or touch.