Social Media: Benefits and Limitations of a Digital Revolution - Research Paper

Introduction

The platforms of social media have led to the total transformation of how millions of people interact across the globe. In this case, the highest number of people have been opening social media accounts every day. The average people spend approximately two hours on average daily on internet websites and social media. Social media definitely as with many technologies which change the way of life, comes with its benefits as well as limitations. Many reviews that have been done reveals that a careful look at the complex ways in which the depression, as well as anxiety, is related to social media. In this paper, a relationship on the social media will be done in close relationship to the major topics which will include; loneliness, fear of missing out, upward social comparison, and cyberbullying.

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Loneliness

There are several concerns that have been made about social media and loneliness. In the article on social media and loneliness, the author has clearly outlined how the loneliness and social media are interrelated among adults. "In the past decade, social media have become an integral part of the lives of children, adolescents, and adults. Almost everyone uses this medium to connect to friends, family, co-workers, and communities, and a significant part of young people's social lives is now being conducted on social media and online forums "(Yavich, 10). The critical features which are unique relating to the benefits of many adults, as well as the young people in comparison with other communications media, include; the immediacy, accessibility contributing to the users of the social development as well as knowledge and their public nature.

The vital issue that has been raised by the therapists, as well as the educators, is whether the presence of the young people in the virtual world constitutes an adequate alternative for the sense of belonging as well as the loneliness mitigates that the youths normally experience. Therefore the social media have been found to have an intense association with higher levels of loneliness. Loneliness is normally the difference existing between the desires of an individual for the social relationships and the actual relationship in society. Therefore a difference exists between social isolation and the loneliness. The social networks mainly facilitate the group communications as well as the interpersonal communications, and it also enhances conversation between two or more people who under the ordinary circumstances, might have never met.

According to the author in the article, the ability of an individual to respond is what transforms them into a participating audience in the other person's experience. Therefore the virtual interaction in the social sphere is what allows for the close social ties among the individuals "from the real world" and develops them and also assist people lacking on the gratifying social ties in the construction of the social world through the creation of the new online friendship ties.

Various researchers have dealt with the question of whether the virtual coexistence of people in the social network constitutes a satisfying as well as the appropriate resolution to the loneliness feeling that the young adults as well as the teenager's feels. From the article, it is explicit the young people give a statistically significant expression of the higher degree of loneliness after the internet conversations with virtual mates. The virtual friendship has been noted to be less gratifying in comparison to the face to face communication friendships. Therefore it is vital for the educators to comprehend whether the consequence or the cause of the participation of the virtual interconnection in the social sphere is the loneliness. This will contribute to the focused tools development which is designed to improve on the therapeutic conversations as well as the social skills with the young adults and the teenagers who experience loneliness.

A different picture arises out of the exploration writing on contrasts in loneliness among people. Most concentrated that utilised the UCLA scale found no measurably noteworthy contrasts between sentiments of loneliness of people, yet in concentrates that found such contrasts, men scored higher on dejection than ladies. Interestingly, in ordinary social circumstances, ladies are increasingly able to recognise feeling desolate, while men are less disposed to do as such, because of social generalisations. Notwithstanding, regardless of the underlying conviction that wedded individuals are less forlorn in light of the fact that they go through the vast majority of the day with a related other who knows and gets them, people normally give additional time in their accomplices and essentially put less time in their associations with relatives, companions, and collaborators and in this manner may report more elevated amounts of social loneliness.

The Social Media and the Fear of Missing Out

The author in the article, the "Fear of Missing Out and its Link with Social Media and Problematic Internet Use" reveals that the rise of the social media, as well as the internet, has led to an anxious feeling among the social media use which is merely referred to as the fear of missing out. This refers to a form of social anxiety which results from the concern of not being in touch with the cyber world's events. The people have definitely intensified the use of social media as well as the internet with the intention of satisfying their basic psychological needs.

Therefore, the FOMO might be involved in the association between social media use as well as the satisfaction of certain mental needs where there is high anxiety of one being left out. "The 21st century has been described as the Internet age because the information from throughout the world can be easily retrieved. Because of ability to gain access to computers and Internet from a very early age, today's young adults have been labelled as the "digital generation" or the "digital natives "(Reyes, 504). The information, as well as communication technologies, have been an important part of many people's lives as a result of its utility value in many cases. According to the author in the article, the internet is usually termed as the "information highway" since it entails a global interconnection of the various sets of computers through which there exists easy access of the information to many people across the world.

The exponential growth, as well as the upward influx of the internet in the 21st century, has created a path for social media growth. The upsurge on the internet, as well as social media use, seems to be having a dire impact on the way people live their lives. The meetings that are intended for the conversations and bonding have turned out into gatherings where many people use their handsets as an alternative to interaction with one another "(Reyes, 504). These have therefore resulted in the problematic use of the internet where there is an incapacity to regulate the way in which an individual is involved in the use of the internet, which results in the severe consequences in one's way of life on the daily basis. This can also incorporate the internet use that is risky, impulsive in nature and excessive use that will eventually lead to adverse consequences of life which include the physical, social, and emotional as well as the functional impairment. According to the information from the article, many people using social media mainly suffers from the fear of not missing out "(Reyes, 504). This is because they tend to fear missing out on the news, events as well as the updates of the status in the social network.

There exists a vicious cycle operating in people suffering with the highest level of FOMO, whereby they end up feeling lonely and increasingly sad as a result of the substitute of the social media contact for the other people interactions globally in the real sense, which tends to increase further on their sense of isolation leading to the high level of the fear of not missing out (FOMO). The critical desire of becoming an individual who is actively involved in participation in the engagements of social media brings about the increased usage of internet risk.

The relationship between social media and the FOMO can be well explained using the theory of self-determination. The theory reveals that , adequate psychological health, as well as self-regulation, are mainly situated on the satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs which includes; autonomy, which refers to the personal initiative or self-authorship, competence, referring to the capacity to act on the world efficaciously and finally closeness or relatedness with others "(Reyes, 504). Following the theory, it was evidenced that the individuals with less basic psychological needs' satisfaction are subjected to higher FOMO levels as well as intense behavioural engagement to social media. Besides, the low basic needs satisfaction may result in social media engagement in two ways, i.e. it could directly lead to the social media use in which case an individual engages in it more with the aim of connecting with others hence deepening the social ties and developing the social competence.

The Social Media and the Upward Social Comparison

The social networking sites (SNSs) which include the WhatsApp, twitter and even Facebook gives an adequate opportunity of social comparison. With the increased SNSs, the main aim with the current studies was to detect on the impact of the temporary exposure and chronic use of the social media-based social comparison on the information on the issue of self-esteem. The author in the article "Social comparison, social media, and self-esteem" reveals that the Facebook users more often have been associated with the poor self-esteem trait which was jointly mediated by the high social comparisons' exposure to the profile of the social media in relation to the state of self-evaluation and the that of self-esteem "( Vogel, 206).

From the article, the relative self-evaluation, as well as the state of self-esteem, diminished in the case when the target person's profile documented an upward information comparison. "Humans are thought to possess a fundamental drive to compare themselves with others, which serves a variety of functions, such as fulfilling affiliation needs, evaluating the self, making decisions, being inspired as well as regulating emotions and wellbeing"( Vogel, 206). In this case, the upward social comparison mainly happens when there is a close comparison of oneself with others who are known to be superior and have positive features whereas in the other case of downward social comparison mainly happens in cases where there is a comparison of an individual with others who are inferior and have negative characteristics.

The author reveals that traditionally, the social comparison in the "offline" sense mainly revolves around in-person interaction with others, e.g. the family, friends and even the co-workers. As the people are increasingly involved in the use of SNSs, the majority of comparative information in the social sense that may lead to the reception in the daily lives may lean in a positive direction. Therefore the perfect platform is mainly provided by the SNSs for the meticulous self-representation. The users can selectively allow content onto their profiles, post pictures, and describe themselves in ways that best represent their ideal self-views "( Vogel, 207). For instance, an interactive self-representation platform is Facebook since is users can take their time to strategically construct the online personas focusing on their traits, which are most desirable.

Cyberbullying

The article on the cyberbullying reveals that schools globally are being charged to take action and ensure the cyberbullying has bee...