Social media has been an immense blessing to us in the society with its numerous benefits and advantages so also it has been a curse on the other hand, coming with its numerous disadvantages.
Part of the benefits of social media is bringing the world together and making the world a global village has prophecised by Marshall Mac Luhan.
Social media has made live easier and stress free when it comes to information dissemination, within the comfort of our homes,we can disseminate information to far and wide distances to millions of heterogenous audience,all thanks to social media.
Social media also come with its speed of delivering messages and receiving immediate feedback, without social media,life will be very challenging and difficult.
Social media being a means of interactions among people is used to create, share and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks .
Social media in this dispensation,is becoming fast rising and increasingly day by day as majority of youths including television viewers and radio listeners are now moving from electronic media to social media.
It is worth noting that social media has helped bridge the gap of long distance and connecting the people together. With myraid of benefits social media has availed us,it equally potends lots of danger to the society especially to the youths.
Social media has become an influencer, directly influencing the behavior of the youths in the society today. The youths have now become addicted to it to the extent that it has now become an instrument overriding the lives of the youths.
It’s so sad that social media that ought to help bring about positivity in the society is now becoming an instrument of destruction to the society due to the way it is being used by the youths of nowadays. Like an adage that says,when you don’t know the value of something,abuse is inevitable.
Part of the disadvantage social media brought is the fact that it has disunited us such that, people don’t even know how to interact with people physically in the society, and as a result of that, they loose their connection with members of the society as well as loose their communication skills gradually.
Social media also constitute to the increase in crimes in the society as luxuries and extravagant lifestyles are celebrated on social media invoking actions from our youth into doing what they aren’t supposed to do . Many youths do things according to what they see on social media,Some feel oppressed seeing there childhood friend posting exotic cars, expensive cloth and phones, without knowing the roots .
All these stimulate wrong thought in the youths that they start feeling that they must get rich by all means resulting to ritual killings,money rituals, kidnapping,etc all in the name of getting rich quickly.
Also, youths nowadays elapsed most of there times on social media engaging in frivolities everyday, at the detriment of their education. There are lots of educational materials that they could actually channel their energy to that will make them productive but they prefer to waste such time on imorality that would not add any positive value to their lives .
These explain why you see some students doing all sorts of things with their phones while lecturer is in the class lecturing.
While some of these societal norms and behaviors could be attributed to the exposure of the youths to social media as they imitate Western values they are being exposed to.
These explain different kinds of dressing ,hairdo displayed by the youths today and even the expressions and slangs used by them,it is as a result of what they are being exposed to on social media.
Similarly, you see fake news and information being disseminated on these platforms causing unrest and havoc to people.
No doubt, social media is a source of income to majority of the people in the society as they earn money from it every day,this explains why some people can’t do without it. So also some people use social media to socialize themselves and as well promote their businesses.
As a result of that,it has become prominent part of people’s life in the society hence,it shouldn’t in any way be abuse or used negatively but be used for the betterment of the society.
Aminat Gusanu is an HND2 student of Mass Communication.
