Opinion: Seeing social media as a positive outcome
Chloie Mendoza
Many think social media is unhealthy for society. Let’s talk about how it is actually a learning process and an opportunity to better our future.
The Netflix original, The Social Dilemma (TSD), captures the impact of social media in modern-day society. The movie highlights concepts like social engineering, surveillance capitalism and technology addiction. TSD discusses the ways social media is crafted to manipulate and influence users. I believe people are slowly accommodating to the reality of social media. We have the ability to gain insight into the opportunities this has for us to improve our quality of life.
People have experienced and witnessed social media take over the lives of young individuals. The rate in depression and anxiety rapidly increased in 2009. I remember when people fabricated self-harm as an aesthetic on various social media platforms. People created ‘depression’ accounts where they manipulated young individuals into thinking self-harm was part of the norm. From the spike in 2009, the rate of depression and anxiety was up 62 per cent for older teen girls and 189 per cent in pre-teens.
Social media has completely and utterly changed generation Z. As an individual who grew up in this generation, I admit that I was addicted to my phone for a period of time. However, my parents never knew how to regulate my technological usage growing up much like most parents. I immigrated to Canada from a country that does not generate wealth like it does here. I was introduced to technology at a young age; consequently, the way I looked at myself and the way I behaved was entirely influenced by social media. My parents, much like yours, grew up in a society where smartphones did not exist. Introducing social media to a market segment definitely had its trial and error.
Did you know the suicide rate decreased last year? Suicides have been on rise for over a decade now and I believe that our generation is now understanding how to moderately use social media.
I personally have not seen any accounts encouraging depression and self-harming since my pre-teens. Instead, I often find accounts on several platforms that motivate and uplift individuals during difficult times. For instance, Bell Let’s Talk is an awareness campaign to combat stigma regarding mental illness in Canada.
Bell Let’s Talk has celebrities tweeting about it and encouraging their broad fan-base that it is okay to talk about your feelings. I believe depression and anxiety was so high in previous years because people did not feel comfortable talking about a sensitive topic. Now I find people talking freely about mental illnesses and Bell Let’s Talk broke down the barrier people were so afraid of.
If it was not for social media, most jobs in the communications field would not exist. The power of social media has enabled ways to raise awareness for a cause such as the Black Lives Matter movement that recently occurred this year.
The Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 was inspired after the killing of George Floyd and several others. People began to use social media as a platform to sign petitions, raise donations and increase awareness by using #BLM. According to New York Times, Black Lives Matter may be the biggest movement in U.S. history.
Bell Let’s Talk and Black Lives Matter are two perfect examples on how social media has aided us in our quality of life. Every day, people are tweeting, browsing on Facebook, writing reviews, posting on Instagram, and using YouTube and Snapchat. Overall, individuals are constantly interacting with each other.
We have unlimited resources to gather information and innovate new ideas. Without social media, spreading information worldwide would be difficult. We can communicate all around the world by sharing different theories and thoughts.
Why not make use of social media into something good? We should educate the future generation on the proper use of technology. We have learned from our mistakes so let it reside to you how you do not want your offspring to experience the same.
We need to develop a good understanding of how we can use social media to raise awareness of the global issues around the world. In addition, we need to reduce any attempt at propaganda.
Social media has its negatives but how would this article be shared quickly and easily without social media?
Chloie Mendoza is a public relations student at Mount Royal University and works in social media.
