Introduction
Social media has generated new approaches to communication for people across the globe hence resulting in tremendous effects on their daily lives. For example, social media has brought individuals with similar interests together and widened the horizons of sharing ideas and knowledge across the globe. This has brought about both negative and positive effects on human behavior and society. Some of the numerous communication benefits of social media include breaking down worldwide boundaries and cultural hindrances (Akram and Kumar 347-349). Nevertheless, it has promoted a fake sense of online correlations and valueless friendships resulting in psychological and emotional problems. Social media communication may also become easily addictive hence interfering with personal and family time over and above weakening interpersonal skills, which causes increased antisocial behavior. There is a need to curb the negative effects of social media on communication behaviors to prevent them from robbing the trust and confidence that people had in one another or substituting human fellowship and emotional support with virtual ties.
Main body
Social media has caused negative effects on communication behavior such as eliciting a false feeling of connections and friendships. It has become a trendy medium for repeated discussions and created room for a continued rehashing of conversations regarding the arising problems (Akram and Kumar 349-354). This makes people become obsessed over the shared issues, which are mainly minor problems, such as self-consciousness of appearance, worries concerning peer reception, and feelings that love is not reciprocated. As a result, face-to-face relationships that are vital for advancements of interpersonal skills, communication, and social skills have been cut off from people’s lives, particularly younger generations. The effect of this is that children and adolescents are experiencing challenges interacting with one another, which may trigger unsociable behavior.
Negative effects of interpersonal and social skills have made people unhappy with their current situations hence evoking problems of depression and poor self-esteem. When a person shares a problem on social media, it attracts both negative and positive comments, which create a buildup of obsession and anxiety (Siddiqui and Singh 71-72). This is worsened by the fact that once something is posted on social media, it becomes difficult to take it back since even if it is deleted, it may still exist elsewhere on the platform as another person may have taken its screenshot and reposted it. Such occurrences subject the person who initially shared to heightened anxiety and depression.
Social media is being used as a platform for the perpetuation of hearsay and negativity hence causing an increase in violent behaviors in society. Studies have established that most violent games on social media contribute to a rise in hostile behaviors and inclinations, mainly in children. The increasing rumors of kidnappers over Facebook and WhatsApp have resulted in the deaths of innocent individuals in different parts of the world (Siddiqui and Singh 73-75). Moreover, with social media, it is almost impossible to evade bad news and negative impact on people’s lives. In the majority of occurrences, it has contributed to lasting psychological consequences. Negative effects of social media on communication behaviors are generating thoughts of the world disintegrating, nervousness, and depression.
Attributable to the possibility of promoting lies on social media; some people have increasingly been attacking and hurting others in several ways. Furthermore, criminals have devised means of taking advantage of social media communication where they conceal their identity or engage in impersonation and practice illegal activities such as cyberbullying, terrorism, drug dealing, and human trafficking to mention a few. Such criminal activities have negatively affected the lives of innocent social media users in different ways (Akram and Kumar 348-350). For example, victimization and bullying have been linked to a rising risk of suicide, in addition to mental health disorders. To prevent such negative effects, sharing of hostile messages on social media should be criminated. Countries around the world are increasingly regulating the usage of social media by such practices as passing laws against cyberbullying to protect the victims.
Despite the numerous negative effects, communication on social media has had positive influences such as bringing people together, allowing easy sharing of knowledge and promoting education. About 90% of university and college students around the world use social media platforms. To promote education and other positive uses, students should be enlightened on the proper application of social networks (Siddiqui and Singh 71-73). For example, social media has improved the quality and level of collaboration among students and teachers by allowing them to communicate without difficulty and share information promptly. It has also encouraged students to write posts that facilitate their knowledge skills. Additionally, some teachers are conducting online assessments through social media platforms, which is a beneficial approach to enhancing the learners’ knowledge.
The positive application of social media has made clients collaborate and link up with businesses on a more personal level through different networking sites. Companies and organization across the globe are increasingly promoting their businesses and operations through social media platforms. Social media has also increased creativity in people’s thinking by enabling them to share their opinions easily and work with one another. This allows people to explore and be actively engaged without the dread of rejection irrespective of their religion or nationality. This has created a situation where a person can connect with anyone and learn from them or share one’s thoughts and views (Akram and Kumar 347-349). Although spending many hours in social media gaming cannot be advocated, such games promote social connections, boost one’s self-efficacy, enhance cognitive flexibility, and promote self-control. Furthermore, they teach people proper ways of dealing with failure and accomplishment in life. Connection with family members, friends, security agencies, and some government officials on social media has made people feel safe as they visit different destinations. Social media platforms have also made it easy for people to find jobs in their profession and fields of interest hence reducing crime that rises with increased unemployment.
Conclusion
The daily application of social media has risen so greatly that it is gradually creating an inflection into people’s behavior. Though the use of social media has had numerous communication benefits such as enabling people to connect with family members and friends internationally, it has its drawbacks too. For example, social media has created tools for human and drug traffickers, terrorists, and other criminals hence making it easy for them to carry on with their operations. Other positive influences of social media communication include bringing people together, enabling easy sharing of information, improving business operations, increasing creativity, facilitating social connections, reducing the level of crime associated with unemployment, and promoting learning. The negative effects of social media on communication behaviors should be addressed effectively to thwart them from robbing the trust that individuals had in each other or replacing human fellowship and emotional support with online ties.
Works Cited
Akram, Waseem, and Raman Kumar. “A Study on Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society.” International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering, vol. 5, no. 1, 2017, pp. 347-354.
Siddiqui, Shabnoor, and Tajinder Singh. “Social Media its Impact with Positive and Negative Aspects.” International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and Research, vol. 5, no. 2, 2016, pp. 71-75.