15 Ways That Social Media is Killing You
 When
social networking websites first debuted on the information superhighway
a little over a decade ago, many people heavily criticized them overall and felt
that they were simply passing fads. Most critics and online analysts felt that
these websites would eventually fade away just like every other temporary fad of
pop culture and lose their overall relevance. However, those assumptions and
conclusions have clearly been proven wrong in a monumental way.
Social networking websites have drastically changed the Internet in more ways
than one and completely altered the way that hundreds of millions of people have
communicated with each other as well as how hundreds of thousands of companies
around the world are able to connect to their past and prospective customers.
Even though the average person could come up with an extensive list of benefits
that are experienced through social media overall, it is vital that the same
person also pays close attention to a list of ways that social media is killing
them.
15) Killing Your Blood Pressure and Stress Levels
 Studies have confirmed that
you can raise your blood pressure by viewing something on the television or
computer screen that causes you to react either mentally or emotionally. Many
people believe that they can only experience high blood pressure and eventually
become diagnosed with hypertension primarily because of their dietary choices
and family medical history. That is actually not the case whatsoever. Even
though those two factors do play a significant role in this diagnosis, life
choices and certain activities throughout the day can also lead to you suffering
from these types of problems.
When you see a status message posted on Facebook that makes you angry or
frustrated, for example, this can cause your blood pressure to rise. If an
online friend says something that disturbs you or you end up having an argument
with a close friend or co-worker through Twitter, your stress levels can
skyrocket and cause you to suffer from anxiety attacks, nausea, dizziness and
other adverse physical reactions. Medical studies have proven over the years
that high blood pressure and excessive stress levels can lead to much more
severe health problems, including heart disease, heart attacks, strokes and
death.
14) Killing Your Self-Esteem and Confidence
 Another way that the world of
social media is killing you is through the decreasing levels of self-esteem and
overall confidence that can quickly occur because of the cyber-bullying and
overall negativity that is directed toward people online. For example, you might
decide to post a picture of yourself during a past beach vacation and
automatically become bombarded by comments from your friends, coworkers and
relatives about how unflattering you look in that particular picture.
Even if they are joking, these types of negative comments cause people to
become more self-conscious about their appearance to the point where they are
skeptical about posting any other pictures of themselves. In more extreme cases,
this major deficiency in self-image and overall confidence can force a person to
live an introverted lifestyle, feeling that they would probably just be better
off not exposing themselves to other people at all instead of just through
online pictures. Studies have proven that a key reason why many people would
rather post pictures of other people, viral images and other objects instead of
pictures of themselves is primarily because they are ashamed of the way that
they look and are afraid about how other people may react if they were to see
those pictures.
13) Killing Your Chances of Getting a Great Job
 The Internet overall has
drastically changed the way many people search for jobs around the world today.
Before the information superhighway was developed, the traditional method that
was used in order to find jobs consisted of searching through the classified ads
of newspapers and physically going into stores and businesses that had "Help
Wanted" posters publicly displayed in the window or signs of their building.
Nowadays, millions of people are relying on the Internet to be able to search
for available job postings and listings in their local areas as well as
throughout their respective countries.
There are specific social media websites, such as LinkedIn, that allow people
to create professional profiles that will allow them to apply for online job
postings and search through the online network to try and connect to different
companies that might be hiring. However, what many people fail to realize is
that not all job postings can be found on the Internet. For instance, a recent
study confirms that, in the United States, 72% of the most recently available
job postings are not found posted on any website. In order to gain access to
that abundance of available listings, you have to be able to use traditional
means (i.e. classified ads, physical job hunts, etc.) in order to apply.
Therefore, the world of social media just might be killing your chances of being
able to apply for a great job that you never knew was even available.
12) Killing Your Chances of Keeping a Great Job
 Another downside to the world
of social media and further proof that social networking websites are negatively
affecting your life is the fact that they can be killing your changes of keeping
the job that you already have. Millions of people use their computers and mobile
devices that are designated specifically for work purposes in order to check
their social media profiles and update their social networking sites. However,
in most cases, this is a violation of the policies of a wide range of companies
and corporations that could lead to immediate termination.
In less severe cases, social media pages will cause a substantial decrease in
the overall productivity of the average employee. Instead of being focused on
giving their all to their work throughout the day, many employees are doing just
enough to get by while they use their personal cell phones and mobile devices to
stay tuned in to what their online friends are doing and posting on Facebook,
Instagram and other social media websites. Even if their company does not have a
specific policy against accessing social media websites on the clock, this
overall decrease in productivity can still have an adverse effect on their job
security. Most companies are not going to want to pay their employees any sort
of wages to spend time scanning through Facebook, so those are the employees
that will, in most cases, end up on the chopping block.
11) Killing Your Daily Physical Activity
 With the rampant increases of obesity
and the prevalence of obesity-related health conditions (including heart
disease, hypertension, diabetes and cancer), millions of people and thousands of
different organizations around the globe are promoting the need to stay
physically active on a daily basis. This message is primarily directed to
children, since studies have confirmed that the average child will spend more
time engaged in online and electronic activities throughout the day than they
will with actual physical activities. This type of inactivity can lead to many
different health problems in people of all ages, but can cause severe
impairments in a child's physical development.
Social media requires absolutely no physical activity whatsoever. You can
literally sit down in front of your computer or lie on your bed with a mobile
device in your hands and spend countless hours chatting, posting and playing on
different social media websites. Even though the detrimental damage that is
being done to your body because of this high level of physical inactivity may
not be apparently clear at first, studies have proven that it will become
apparently clear if this type of behavior becomes repetitious and prolonged over
time. However, by the time you realize that it is a serious problem it might
already be too late.
10) Killing Your Communication Skills
 Before the digital age of advancing
technology completely dominated and revolutionized the way that people
communicate with each other, people actually enjoyed having and hosting
conversations. Young children were able to develop their communication skills
through applying them in the real world as they shared their thoughts with their
friends, family members, schoolmates and teachers. However, the world of social
media picked up where text messaging left off when it comes to impairing an
individual's communication skills overall.
Instead of having great conversations face-to-face with the people that are
close to you, it may be more convenient to just send them a quick text message
or even post a quick message on their social media profile page. Even though it
may seem far-fetched and unrealistic, it is very possible to communicate with
people for many years without actually talking to them or seeing them face to
face because of social networking websites and technology overall. This type of
convenience can quickly become an inconvenience in other areas, because it
completely changes the way that people connect with other people in many
different ways.
Children will never be able to learn how to properly and efficiently
communicate their thoughts and feelings in an open environment because of not
having the chance to fully develop their communication skills. Adults will end
up losing many of the communication skills that they may have spent years
developing primarily because of allowing the crutch of technology and social
media to have this adverse effect on their lives.
9) Killing Your Personal Space and Privacy
 Regardless of age or gender,
everyone is entitled to and enjoys experiencing a certain extent of privacy.
This is one of the reasons why the average homeowner will use the locks on the
doors, limit the number of windows that are built within their home and make
sure that they use curtains and blinds as much as possible to cover the windows
that they do have. However, personal space and privacy are two things that are
compromised, jeopardized and sacrificed through social media. Even without a
social media page or social networking profile, the Internet may already have an
extensive amount of your personal information posted and publicly accessible.
For example, by choosing to have your phone number listed in the phone book,
your name, address and home phone number can quickly be accessed online within a
matter of a few seconds.
By having a social media page, you will only be making more of your private
information public for people all over the world to be able to find and explore.
When Google was first released, many people would spend countless hours
searching for any type of information that they could find on their friends,
family members, co-workers and even people that they may have recently met for
the first time. Soon after Facebook and MySpace were developed, this same
practice was expanded into the realm of social media. Even though you might
think your page is private, your name and profile picture is more than likely
still available for public viewing worldwide just from having a social media
website set up and activated in the first place.
8) Killing Your Social Skills
 Along with killing your communication skills,
studies show that getting involved with any type of social media and social
networking website can also kill your social skills in general. Many people
struggle to remember how they were able to communicate with their friends and
family members before these websites were developed. Relatives that hadn't
spoken to each other in decades were finally able to connect as online friends
and still have not been able to meet each other face-to-face for a physical
conversation.
Before the Internet revolutionized communication in general with chat rooms
and instant messaging, people were required to muster up the boldness and
courage in order to make the effort to connect with others and socialize with
them. This courageous sacrifice benefited them in a number of ways, especially
when it came to being able to develop their social skills and eliminate any
shyness or timid mentality that may have plagued them for years. Nowadays,
millions of people would rather just communicate with people that live in the
same city as them through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram then they would pick
up the phone and choose to give them a quick call.
7) Killing Your Time Management Skills
 As mentioned earlier, social
networking websites are major time traps that can easily remove countless hours
on a daily, monthly and yearly basis. People of all ages can quickly lose chunks
of time throughout the day simply by commenting, posting, updating and upgrading
their social media profiles and pages. This is one of the
major time
wasters of college students. Keep in mind that there are still just 24
hours in the day and there is still an extensive list of more productive things
that people of all ages can be doing with their time besides keeping their eyes
glued to the screens of their electronic devices and social networking websites.
However, time management overall seems to take a backseat when social media is
involved. This means that developing effective time management skills,
regardless if you are a child or an adult, quickly becomes highly improbable and
nearly impossible because of allowing social networking websites and profile
pages to kill off the vast majority of your available time each day.
6) Killing Your Daily Productivity
 Along with killing your time management
skills, social media has also been able to effectively kill off your
productivity overall and what people are able to get done during the day. Many
people and professionals have used themselves in trial experiments to see
exactly how much more they would be able to get done during the day if they
deactivated their social media accounts or chose to spend a specified period of
time away from these websites. The vast majority of the people that have tried
these types of experiments quickly realized just how little they were able to
accomplish each day when they were constantly involved and engaged with
supporting their addiction to social media websites and networking profiles.
From the surface, it may seem like the amount of time that is spent on social
media websites and online applications is insignificant and short. This is
primarily because of the fact that it only takes a few seconds to post a
message, reply to a post or upload a picture. However, what people fail to
realize is that these moments quickly add up and accumulate just like snowballs
leading into an avalanche. If you were to take the time to calculate all of the
"moments" that are spent sending these messages and uploading those pictures,
you would quickly be able to see that several hours can easily be wasted at
least every week through these websites. Think about all of the things that you
could be doing within those blocks of time and you will be able to see clearly
just how quickly social media kills off those opportunities.
5) Killing Your Academic Growth and Development
 One of the primary ways that
social media is hindering young children and adolescents today is through their
overall academic growth and development. Studies have confirmed that many
students spend more time exploring their friend's social networking profiles and
updating their own each night than they do with completing their homework and
studying for upcoming tests and quizzes. In many cases, there are actually more
students talking about the things that happened at school on their Facebook
pages and Twitter profiles than actually focusing while they are in the
classroom.
Even though being involved with social media websites may not hinder adults
in the same way as they do children when it comes to this specific area, they
are still affected by it as well. There are so many other things that adults can
be spending their time exercising their brains and retaining within their minds
each day in order to better themselves and improving their mental abilities
instead of keeping up the gossip and viral videos that are being shared between
their online friends and relatives.
4) Killing Your Attention Span
 One specific facet of life that has been
killed off by the world of technology overall, but primarily through social
media, is the average attention span. Within only a few seconds, the average
social media user can have access to all of the information that they need
online. For example, they can find out exactly how their friends and family
members are feeling by reading their 140-character messages that are posted on
their Facebook page. This makes it much more difficult for people to pay
attention and focus during extensive conversations, even with the people that
live under the same roof as them. Viral videos allow people to be able to
receive a sufficient amount of entertainment within only a few minutes at a
time, which makes it hard to pay attention to extensive movies and television
shows or to be entertained through various social activities with others. The
average human brain is only able to process so much information in a short span
of time already, but social media and the Internet overall are drastically
killing off the little bit of attention that most people still have to spare.
3) Killing Your Intimate Relationships
 Even though you may not know it,
social media and social networking websites are also killing your intimate
relationships with significant others. In order for a relationship to work, you
need to be able to spend quality time with that person, maintain an open line of
communication with them and continue to maintain a foundation of mutual trust
and respect between the two of you. Social networking websites have effectively
been able to compromise all three of those areas in thousands of relationships
around the world within the last 10 years.
Countless hours of productivity and energy are dispensed through maintaining
and exploring social networking profiles. Therefore, this greatly reduces the
amount of quality time that you have to spend and share with your significant
other. Even while many people are physically with their spouses and lovers, they
might spend time on their cell phones checking status updates and posting
pictures of their outings together. Communication skills are already greatly
impaired through social media overall, but these websites can cause irreparable
damage when it comes to communication within any type of relationship or close
friendship.
It seems that more people are naturally inclined to and much more comfortable
with talking about their relationship problems through online blog postings and
cryptic tweet messages than they do through actual, private conversations with
their significant others. Many people within a relationship do not see a problem
with becoming online friends with past lovers and former spouses, which can
quickly escalate into problems of infidelity within a current relationship and
the lack of mutual respect and trust between two people.
2) Killing Your Parent-Child Relationships
 Many parents today are only able
to find out about what their children are thinking about or feeling by reading
the status messages that are featured and posted on their social media pages and
profiles. There have been cases of children in recent years who have committed
suicide due to
bullying either at school or online. Many of the parents of these
children say that they did not know their children were experiencing these
problems, primarily because they did not ever talk about it. However, further
investigations may show that the child expressed himself or herself through text
messages with friends and online postings through social networking websites –
but they never allowed their parents to have access to those messages.
While parents lead extremely busy lives and sometimes spend more time trying
to financially support their children, balancing that out with providing
emotional and mental support can be challenging. Social networking websites do
not make this monumental task any easier to overcome; some parents say those
sites actually make it much more difficult to handle.
1) Killing Your Business through Bad Publicity
 Even though social networking
tools are proven effective as a marketing tool for businesses, these sites can
also be key reasons why many businesses are struggling and eventually having to
shut down. Social networking websites are specifically designed to reach
hundreds of millions of people worldwide. This is great exposure for a business
when the comments and feedback that they are receiving from their customers and
clients are positive.
However, this can also be detrimental when those comments and overall
feedback is not positive. Studies have proven that more people respond to
negativity than they do positivity in every aspect of their lives, especially
when it has to do with the companies that they invest their hard-earned money
into. A viral attack on a business can take down an entire company or severely
damage its bottom line.
Final Words
There are many enjoyable aspects of social networking that are beneficial,
fun and entertaining. That is one of the main reasons why there are hundreds of
millions of people all around the world who collectively spend billions of hours
each year logged into these different websites. However, spending too much time
on these sites can have adverse effects. It's like anything in life: Moderation
is key.
When used properly and in moderation, it is evidently clear that social media
and social networking websites can become great online tools that improve the
quality of your life. On the other hand, becoming addicted and obsessed with
using these social networking websites on a daily basis can eat away at your
life, lead to unhappiness or restlessness and serve as an unproductive time
killer.
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One of the primary ways that
social media is hindering young children and adolescents today is through their
overall academic growth and development. Studies have confirmed that many
students spend more time exploring their friend's social networking profiles and
updating their own each night than they do with completing their homework and
studying for upcoming tests and quizzes. In many cases, there are actually more
students talking about the things that happened at school on their Facebook
pages and Twitter profiles than actually focusing while they are in the
classroom.
