Is social media ruining your inner peace ?

Life in today’s world is immensely tough and competitive. Coping up with your work as well as managing your personal life can really get hard at times. But, amidst all of this, do you ever sit down at a place and think that how the world would have been today without technology ? Difficult right ? Because it is actually unimaginable. Without these phones, laptops, TVs, tablets, internet, our way of living would have been poles apart of what it is today

Technology makes our life easier, a lot easier if we compare it to a parallel universe where it is not present. We rely and depend on it so much that without it our education, work an even defence and administration of any country would be badly affected. But, however we should also draw our attention towards a very complicated section of technology and the internet which is popularly known as social media by people. Social media refers to the group of applications like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat which enables users to communicate and share their thoughts, experiences with people worldwide and even those whom they have never met or have known about their existence before.

These apps provide a platform for people to make contacts with and extend their social circle to individuals beyond their locality, workspace, city or even country. It also enables them to showcase their hidden skills, talents to the world which gives them a recognition and reputation in the society. Many of them have ended up being so popular and successful that they earn in billions now, just by making videos on Youtube or posts on Facebook and Instagram. By default, nearly everyone beyond the age of 13-14 are assumed to have social media accounts on any of the apps mentioned above. This is just a little description of what really these platforms have become over the years and now is among the least number of topics that an average human being won’t have any knowledge or opinion upon.

But the limitations and disadvantages of social media are numerous and the problems associated with it are devastating. These apps now have become one of the major reasons of depression and suicide among different age groups in several countries. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 46,000 people in the United States committed suicide in 2020 – that’s a rate of 14 people per 100,000. Among children and young adults ages 10 to 24, the suicide rate is 10.7 per 100,000 and is the second-leading cause of death. (Source- https://socialmediavictims.org/) Research has also shown that young adults who use social media are three times as likely to suffer from?depression, putting a large portion of the population at risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviours.?(Source- https://healthcare.utah.edu/). The question here is why ? How did some tools of mass communication and entertainment became so fatal for people especially teenagers to actually giving up on their gifted life ? How did it got that level of importance to be the deciding factor of the existence of individuals on this planet ?

Social media causes mental illness, anxiety, insecurities and self-doubts. These problems are faced by almost all the age groups but the most significant of all is the 13-19 one, yeah the teenage one. It’s the most sensitive period of a human being’s life irrespective of their gender. Onset of puberty, physical, mental, emotional, psychological changes, growing insecurities and indecisiveness are a few things every human being goes through when they reach the adolescent age as it is natural and inevitable. But this period becomes worse by the negative impact of social websites when they become too much to handle for the young people. They start comparing their lives with that of celebrities or individuals who enjoy a luxurious life or the perceived perfect life according to the viewer even if it is fake or show off. They start following them and taking interest on what they show online and most of them believe it to be real whereas in most of the cases, they are just show offs. The influencer may be in a bad shape or actually leading a worse life than his/her viewer in reality but display something entirely different to people who don’t know them personally and are miles away from them. But this is not suspected by the young fans as they are in the most sensitive period of their life and believes on only those which he/ she wants to believe on. This leads to anxiety and insecurities towards their new desires and be envious about them.

The above one was actually the smallest component of the issue. The major and the biggest one is Cyber Bullying. If we remove the word ‘cyber’ then you would definitely be acquainted with the word. Bullying often happens in schools, colleges or sometimes in workplaces too. Students who don’t like to mix with others, who try to be alone, may or may not be studious are often targeted, the reasons can be ridiculous enjoyment and fun for bullies or sometimes, personal grudges can also play a part. All of this tends to happen face to face where both the identity of the victim and the bully are known very well. But in cyber bullying, people may or may not have any information about the? person behind the screen except of what they have told them. Some examples of cyber bullying are-

1.?Writing abusive and insulting comments on someone’s post or profile.

2. Posting embarrassing and humiliating photo/video about a certain someone or a group of individuals.

3. Sending threatening messages out of hatred and anger

4. Messaging someone on someone’s else behalf

Cyber bullying often leads to users getting traumatized and get their mental health badly affected. ?It can even go to the extent of suicide or self-harm out of shame or fear. This is a lethal situation for the future of any country who wants to prosper and develop like Bharat. In our country, today’s youth or more popularly called the ‘GenZs’ are becoming the victims of social media addiction, harassment and cyber bullying. The age in which children should study, play, develop their interests, learn productive things, they are wasting their valuable time in posting unnecessary photos and making reels which are going to be of no benefit for them in their future. But just for the sake of temporary bliss, they pay no heed to others’ advices. Today’s youth gives no importance to the experience of their elders out of their arrogance and ego. This can be really detrimental for them as well as the society.

Concluding, I would just like to state that social media or internet can be both useful and vicious depending upon the user. If used in the positive direction, it has the ability to make a person a star overnight and if it goes bad, it has the potential to end the life of a person. Thus be cautious and careful while using social media platforms and don’t let its negativity affect you or your friends and families.

?????????????????????????????????????????????????? With due regards

-Tejaswini Sinha???