Impact of Social Media

Project Description

For this project, I analyzed the impact of social media on society and reflected on how it has impacted my life. 

Interesting Social Media Statistic 

The most interesting statistic in the articles was the rise of TikTok since 2021. Since the global COVID-19 pandemic, I have witnessed the rise of TikTok as as social media platform. I remember it starting out as Musical.ly, which  I did not use as much but saw once in a while. During the pandemic, it seemed like everyone I knew downloaded TikTok, which matches the statistics in this graph below. 

Social Media's Impact on Society 

In my opinion, social media has had both a positive and a negative impact on society. When social media started expanding, it created spaces for people to find others who had similar interests and for people to keep in contact over long distances. For example, I am able to talk to my family members back home in the Philippines because of social media. I am able to keep in contact with people I have met throughout my walk of life and stay updated on their lives even though we don't talk as much anymore. I have also been able to keep up with the news easily as things can be reported through live updates.

However, I also believe that there is an unspoken weight on what you consume through social media that can severely affect mental health. If you see someone who is always happy on their social media, it's very easy to compare their life with yours. It also is the cause of misinformation because of the live updates. Because of the accessibility and availability of social media along with the emergence of AI, it is important to remain vigilant on the content we consume as a society and how we let it affect us and how we treat others.

Lessons Learned

While completing this project, I realized I am in a point in my life where being accessible on social media has caused me to want to disappear and delete every account I have, but at the same time I am stuck wanting to know the most current events about my family and friends. I have recently been "quitting" social media and logging out of them for a few weeks and then I log in again and "rejoin" society. Before, I used to wonder how people never had social media, but now I somewhat understand. 

Sources

Gottfried, J. (2024). Americans’ Social Media Use: YouTube and Facebook are by far the most used online platforms among U.S. adults; TikTok’s user base has grown since 2021. Pew Research Center. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep63512