In each individual's daily life circle there is the likelihood of socializing and interacting with a variety of people. For instance, communicating with the members of one's family, family friends, work colleagues, friends, and strangers. Based on the proliferation of internet access devices such as mobile phones and computers, the use of the internet to connect to various social media platforms is globally a common phenomenon.
The most commonly used social media platforms Include Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, Pinterest, Youtube, Vimeo, Periscope, and Facebook live. The aforementioned have the ability to enable users to network, micro-blog, and share photos as well as videos. People, therefore, use social media for various reasons including social interaction, information seeking, passing time, entertainment, expression of emotion, convenience, sharing information, and knowing about others (Shane-Simpson et al. 23). As such, this paper delves into finding out whether the use of social media promotes or erodes the users' ability to find happiness.
Social media as informed by Fox, Jeremy, Osborn, and Katie (12) Is commonly used by many people worldwide due to its characteristics features that support openness, participation, and information sharing. The social media networks, as well as their applications, are growing enormously due to their ability to facilitate faster exchange and sharing of information. However, people have for a long time since their inception asked about their impacts on people's lives. On one hand, some people based on the social advantages that it offers, have the opinion that it promotes happiness. On the other hand, others are of the view that it erodes the users' ability to find happiness. Taking such opposing concerns into consideration, it is imperative to weigh the social media advantages against the disadvantages in regards to impacts on people's social lives and make informed inferences.
The advantages of Social Media
Social media based on particular relations, activities, and information that an individual is interested in, can promote users' ability to be happy by offering connections to persons with the same interests. As such, it provided to the users the high level of connectivity such that people from anywhere across the globe are able to connect and interact. There are no limitations and barriers created by location and regional boundaries. For instance, for families that have their parents working abroad or people in a relationship but come from different regions can often communicate via Facebook Live and Skype to remain connected. The social media, thus, fills the gap by making it possible for people to communicate with the families and loved ones even when they are away (Workman, 2017).
The social media as inferred from Workman (51) creates a virtual community or a society where members of a particular cam come together to share their ideas, express their feelings and concerns. During such discussions, the members who have pressing issues and concerns are free to share since they are free to participate and be as open as possible. For instance, there are societal issues such as rape, child molestation, parental neglect of obligations, forced relationships, and persistent stereotype cultural norms that individuals find difficult to air in the society but easier to share online. The people who have been subjected to the highlighted issues have received help and lived happy lives after getting help from their social media groups. The groups are informed and the members know where to report certain issues. Thus, by referring their friends to the respective social agencies' sites, their friends have been able to receive help and support of different kinds.
People with low self-esteem have been able to find happiness by using social media. The social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram promote online dating where such persons have been able to find men and women with similar interests and have become friends (Sahlin 78). Currently, matchmaking has been a common phenomenon where local radio stations and television stations help people to find their soul mates. In other instances, social media has helped identify people with shared needs for relationships and connected them. Many families have been established as a result of meeting through social media in which the friendships eventually led to marriages. Such people are living happily and thankful for the social media innovation.
Workman (102) notes that individuals have different definitions and dimensions of what makes them happy. There are those who find happiness in fighting the wrongs within the society. For example, it might be hard to in-person whistle blow the corrupt actions and deals of the government. Using social media has made it for people to air such issues by remaining anonymous while achieving the desired goals. People of that kind have been able to find happiness for helping expose the evil in their respective societies. They are championing good courses behind their devices and in the end become satisfied with their actions.
The disadvantages
According to Krasnova et al. (56), social media erodes the users' ability to be happy because they tend to compare themselves with others yet it is harmful. Friends in social media including work colleagues, former high school mates, relatives, and virtual friends often post videos and pictures of how well they are doing in life. An individual who constantly compares himself or herself to others ends up feeling less happy, mentally and physically disturbed, thus, ends up suffering from depression. The author further explains that teenagers who always compare themselves with their friends reduce their chances of being happy by developing the feeling that they might not be as cool as their friends. They do not realize that their friends might only be choosing to display scenes and pictures of the occasional moments that they feel happy while completely ignoring circumstances when they are faced with real-life situations. In so doing, they create for themselves the vicious cycle of depreciating self-esteem driven by the search for individual approval and contentment.
The social media users minimize their chances of being happy based on their quest and thirst for instant gratification. The need desire for instant gratification from friends puts the social media users in a constant race where many people often try to post the best videos, photos, as well as constant updates of better and more affluent places they have been to in order to get the most likes if the social platform is Facebook or Myspace and many followers if the social media used is Twitter or Instagram. The intent is to prove to the world or a group they belong to in the social media that they are doing well (Krasnova et al. 72). Unfortunately, underneath, the users might be facing many real-life challenges. Trying to buy a class that one has not reached and living beyond an individual's means is detrimental to one's happiness. For instance, the social media user who wants to showcase a good life and brag about how well they are enjoying life may be forced to borrow money to take the cool photos they are displaying or to visit the affluent places they are posting. The reality only hits them when they have to pay back the loans.
Facebook and Instagram users are hungry for positive feedback whenever they post videos and pictures about their moments in life. Teenagers according to Trottier (67) are the most affected group of the social media users. For instance, teenagers who spend more than two hours daily on their social media sites exhibit high chances of developing mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. As observed among the users, there are often jokes that are made in comments on an individual's post, picture, or video. The comments might be touching on one's cultural practices, religious beliefs, or political alignment. Consequently, the effects might be deleterious and erode the users' ability to be happy if they are always negative leading to worries and depression.
Cyberbullying and constant worries about crimes against children erode an individual's ability to be happy. Young children and teenagers who use social media often get exposed to different forms of inappropriate contacts that result in mental harassments. Parents are thus faced with the challenge of always having to filter the website contents that children access and become exposed. Unfortunately, they are able to browse the websites that are not controlled through using cyber caf\u00e9 computers where they are likely to watch pornographic videos as well as other inappropriate contents from anonymous sites that might alter their thinking of life realities. Moreover, adults, teenagers, and children can be victims of internet fraud and identity theft. The images, constant updates on where one is, traveling to or coming from can place an individual in problems they never imagined (Workman 156). Using users' updates and taking photos from the internet, identity cans can be made in one's name and used to commit a crime. Many people who only intended to have many online friends and connect with as many people as possible are rotting in prisons for crimes they never committed. Such is the life and consequences of social media use.
In the job market, past posts on certain industry issues, social events, and one's beliefs on some things have denied them the opportunities to get their dream jobs. Corporate invasion of people's privacies has gained access to social media users' communication platforms and collected their shared opinions about situations, products, feelings, and general comments about life circumstances (Trottier 111). During interviews for job opportunities, the past information that was posted long ago has been used to underpin candidates without their knowledge.
Conclusion
Ultimately, social media has its advantages and disadvantages. The manner in which a user chooses to exploit the advantages and disadvantages can either promote or erode one's search for happiness. However, the advantages are most beneficial to businesses and organizations that need to use various social media platforms to reach as many target customers as possible. On the other hand, it generally negatively impacts the social life of individual users who refuse to admit the realities of their situations. Users are thus advised to take caution of what they post and the limit of information they offer to the people they virtually connect to.
Works Cited
Fox, Jesse, Jeremy L. Osborn, and Katie M. Warber. "Relational dialectics and social networking sites: The role of Facebook in romantic relationship escalation, maintenance, conflict, and dissolution." Computers in Human Behavior 35 (2014): 527-534.
Krasnova, Hanna, et al. "Research note—why following friends can hurt you: an exploratory investigation of the effects of envy on social networking sites among college-age users." Information systems research 26.3 (2015): 585-605.
Sahlin, John P. Social Media and the Transformation of Interaction in Society. , 2015.
Shane-Simpson, Christina, et al. "Why Do College Students Prefer Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram? Site Affordances, Tensions Between Privacy and Self-Expression, and Implications for Social Capital." Computers in Human Behavior (2018).
Trottier, Daniel. Social media as surveillance: Rethinking visibility in a converging world. Routledge, 2016.
Workman, Patrick. Examination of Personal Motivations of Leisure Choices in the Social Media Era. Diss. 2017.
