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7 Ways That Social Media is Affecting Us Positively

Editor's note: Two weeks ago, we published this excellent article by Dina Indelicato: Is Social Media Really an Existential Threat? There is a flip side though. And Varun Sharma presents it here. While you will be aware of most of the points put forward, the article is nevertheless timely.

Unfortunately, it has become fashionable to blame social media for everything that ails society.

Before you decide to pull the plug, read on to discover how social media influences the life of people- in a good way! If used right, media can surely alter lives for good.

We have detailed 7 of the ways that social media is affecting our lives for the better. Read on...

Social Media Is a Way to Enhance our Connectivity

It is an effortless way to connect with the like-minded people. You are just a single click away from an incredible number of such people. Regardless of location and religion, social networks are helpful in reviving and preserving relationships with other people.

It has become easier for us to connect with business people, family and friends. Even, many top most companies directly approach candidates through social networking sites like LinkedIn. We can also interact with people of authority who might help us in our careers.

Social Media: An Important Component of the Business Strategies

Social media skills have long-since stopped being considered niche. Instead, it affects the way whole organizations run and grow. It has become the primary means of getting the word out about your business.

How it helps in expanding a business?

Social Media advertising is cheaper as compared to traditional advertising

It reaches all ages and demographics

Its users are active, and it promotes two-way communication

You can share a lot about your business on various platforms

Social Media Has a Lot of Benefits for Students and Teachers

It has become very easy to get knowledge from renowned experts and professionals through the social media. You can easily follow anyone to boost your knowledge. Regardless of your educational background, you can learn various skills without paying for them.

you know- of schools say their students use social networking for educational purposes.

It Can be Used for Noble Causes

Yes, social media can be used for various noble causes like social welfare activities and promotion of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). Not only this, but it also helps to change the way people live. It creates awareness and helps people to discover various innovations that help them enhance their own lives. Every individual from a farmer to a teacher can benefit from the awareness factor of social media.

Social Media Helps in Building Communities

It helps followers of various religions, nationalities and interests to form communities in order to discuss and spread the word. Sports lovers can follow sports communities. Car lovers, music lovers and movie buffs can reminisce, converse and keep up to date with their hobbies. It is definitely not about exploitation. Rather, it is about service to the community.

Social Media Can Benefit Mental Health Too

Emotions expressed online affect your mood. It not only helps to relieve social isolation but also open new communication pathways and offers much-needed support. It allows people to share their thoughts without revealing their identity. And it develops within people an enhanced talent of self-expression without any fear.

Social Media Is a Way to Save Lives

Lives are not only saved only by 24-hour suicide prevention hotlines. Spreading awareness and motivating people is important too. And simply assuring people that they are not alone - or the only ones with their set of problems - can be really important for some. Large numbers of websites now offer support through social platforms. Such websites are allowing people to share their experience with others and motivate them without fear of revealing their identities. What can be better than saving a life? Isn't everything else secondary?

Takeaways

From all the listed points it is now much easier to state that Social Media is definitely a boon. The pros and cons of social media totally depend on how we use it.

This article from bulk.ly offers over 50 different social media post ideas. You'll surely find something worth sharing on social media.

But it is also important to consider the flip side in order to avoid any sort of complications. It is essential for you to verify sources and truth, rather than taking everything you see as fact. You don't want to be "hauled over the coals" due to a wrong move you make by posting something that is poorly researched and ultimately debunked! The way you communicate your thoughts to your audience is a way to increased popularity - provided those thoughts are well contained with verified truths and sources.

It is in your hands whether you use the platforms provided to you wisely so that they prove to be helpful to you and your followers.

Have Your Say

We've now presented both a cautious view of Social Media, and a very positive one. Do you have any thoughts you'd like to add on either side? Please share them in the comments section, below.

Varun Sharma is a Digital Marketing Expert and director of the fastest growing Social Media Marketing Company in India, KVR WebTech Pvt. Ltd. You can tweet him @varunsharma1800

Featured image: Copyright: ' https://www.123rf.com/profile_viewapart ' / 123RF Stock Photo

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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
7 Ways That Social Media is Affecting Us Positively

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Editor's note: Two weeks ago, we published this excellent article by Dina Indelicato: Is Social Media Really an Existential Threat? There is a flip side though. And Varun Sharma presents it here. While you will be aware of most of the points put forward, the article is nevertheless timely.

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Does Social Media Use Cause Depression? - Child Mind Institute

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Is using social media making our kids unhappy? Evidence is mounting that there is a link between social media and depression. How Instagram and Facebook may be negatively affecting teenagers and young adults.

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Psycom.net - Mental Health Treatment Resource Since 1986

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Social media dramatically changed the way we communicate, socialize, and make and maintain friendships. While there are benefits to living in a digital world, there are also risks. Today's youth miss out on critical social skills development when they spend the majority of their free time connected to and interacting through a screen. They can also get lost in a world of unrealistic comparisons, cyberbullying, and feeling left out.

Research shows an increase in major depressive episodes from 8.7% in 2005 to 11.3% in 2014 in adolescents and from 8.8% to 9.6% in young adults. The increase was larger and only statistically significant only in the age range of 12 to 20 years. ¹ Clearly depression is on the rise among teens, the question we need to ask ourselves is how much does technology and social media contribute to it?

It's no big secret that connecting via texting, Instagram, and Facebook can include harsh judgments and comparisons. It's easier to make statements on a screen that would otherwise be difficult to verbalize face to face. And disjointed shorthand conversations can easily result in misunderstandings. It doesn't help that digital communication occurs at a rapid pace, one that is difficult to process at times.

One report by the Royal Society for Public Health in the UK surveyed 1500 young people, ages 14 to 24, to determine the effects of social media use on issues such as anxiety, depression, self-esteem, and body image. Their findings show that YouTube had the most positive impact, while Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and SnapChat all had negative effects on mental health. ²

While these findings might make you want to delete all social media apps and ban your teen from any digital communication, avoidance isn't the answer. Teens use social media to connect, seek friendship and support, and even ask for help at times. A better bet is to understand how and why your teen uses social media, stay connected, and know what to look for if your teen shows unexplained emotional changes.

Symptoms of depression

The defining feature of a major depressive episode is a period of at least two weeks during which there is either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all activities. ³ For children, you are more likely to see irritability than depressed mood. Other symptoms of depression can include the following:

Feelings of hopelessness

Loss of interest in normal daily activities

Irritable mood

Significant weight loss or weight gain

Diminished self-care

Insomnia or hypersomnia

Psychomotor agitation or retardation

Fatigue or loss of energy

Feelings of worthlessness

Excessive guilt

Difficulty concentrating

Difficulty making decisions

Physical complaints: headaches, stomachaches

Social isolation

Recurrent thoughts about death

Suicidal thoughts, actions, or plans.

The symptoms of depression exhibited by teens are likely to negatively affect school performance (and even attendance), friendships, and family relationships. The tricky part about teen depression is that it can be gradual. Complaints of difficulty sleeping or frequent headaches seem age appropriate, and in many cases they are. They shouldn't happen regularly, though. When your typically active and social teen appears isolated, sad, and unreachable, it's time to get help.

How to help your teen navigate social media

Believe it or not, your teen does want your support and guidance, but it can be hard to strike a balance between helping and trying to fix everything. Follow these tips to support your teen:

Ask questions

Teens need autonomy in their lives, so micromanaging their online use can backfire. The best thing parents can do is engage with their teens. Ask which apps your teen uses the most often and why. Give your teen the space to tell you about the benefits of social media.

When difficult situations arise online, either in the news or in your teen's life, as your teen how she or he would handle it. What can teens do to make social media a more positive experience?

Model appropriate behavior

Modeling is very important during adolescence. Teens are confronted with new and confusing information almost daily. Growing up in the digital age is no easy task. When parents follow their own rules and stick to their own boundaries, teen learn important lessons in self-care and setting limits.

When teens begin to internalize the importance of limits and boundaries, they can set limits with their peers. This is an important life skill that is sometimes overlooked when teens are stressed, busy, and constantly connected.

Talk often

Parents play a critical role in helping teens process and cope with what they're seeing online. Talk about your own experiences with social media. Have you ever experienced envy when scrolling through your feed? Have you accepted a friend request that turned out to be a fake profile because you didn't take the time to look? When parents share their own experiences and talk openly about the highs and lows of social media, teens are more likely to open up about their experiences.

Parents can also help teens broaden their social media experiences by talking about interesting Instagram accounts, Twitter feeds, or Facebook pages that share information about certain topics. It's too easy for teens to get stuck on the treadmill of social comparisons when engaged with social media. Guiding them toward their areas of interest using social media helps them expand their experiences and learn new things.

Connection is key when it comes to parenting teens in a modern world. The single best thing you can do for your teen is make time for face-to-face connections and simply be present.

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Is Social Media Affecting Your Teens' Mental Health?

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Social media dramatically changed the way we communicate, socialize, and make and maintain friendships. While there are benefits to living in a digital world, there are also risks. Today's youth miss out on critical social skills development when they spend the majority of their free time connected to and interacting through a screen.

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Install this easy program to your child's phone or tablet to view and block disallowed activity. You can even access the logs from any location by logging into the secure site from any computer, tablet or phone Internet web browser.

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PhoneSheriff | Parental Control Filtering Software for Mobile Phones and Tablets

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IMPORTANT NOTE: The PhoneSheriff product was permanently discontinued by this website's previous owner. Please note we may receive commission on any purchase you make. Protect your tween from gaining access to harmful content online. Set time limits on their phone and data usage from an easy online control panel.

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Many parents worry about how exposure to technology might affect toddlers developmentally. We know our preschoolers are picking up new social and cognitive skills at a stunning pace, and we don't want hours spent glued to an iPad to impede that. But adolescence is an equally important period of rapid development, and too few of us are paying attention to how our teenagers' use of technology - much more intense and intimate than a 3-year-old playing with dad's iPhone - is affecting them. In fact, experts worry that the social media and text messages that have become so integral to teenage life are promoting anxiety and lowering self-esteem.

Young people report that there might be good reason to worry. A survey conducted by the Royal Society for Public Health asked 14-24-year-olds in the UK how social media platforms impacted their health and well-being. The survey results found that Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all led to increased feelings of depression, anxiety, poor body image, and loneliness.

Indirect communication

Teens are masters at keeping themselves occupied in the hours after school until way past bedtime. When they're not doing their homework (and when they are) they're online and on their phones, texting, sharing, trolling, scrolling, you name it. Of course before everyone had an Instagram account teens kept themselves busy, too, but they were more likely to do their chatting on the phone, or in person when hanging out at the mall. It may have looked like a lot of aimless hanging around, but what they were doing was experimenting, trying out skills, and succeeding and failing in tons of tiny real-time interactions that kids today are missing out on. For one thing, modern teens are learning to do most of their communication while looking at a screen, not another person.

"As a species we are very highly attuned to reading social cues," says Catherine Steiner-Adair, EdD, a clinical psychologist and author of The Big Disconnect. "There's no question kids are missing out on very critical social skills. In a way, texting and online communicating puts everybody in a context where body language, facial expression, and even the smallest kinds of vocal reactions are rendered invisible."

Lowering the risks

Certainly speaking indirectly creates a barrier to clear communication, but that's not all. Learning how to make friends is a major part of growing up, and friendship requires a certain amount of risk-taking. This is true for making a new friend, but it's also true for maintaining friendships. When there are problems that need to be faced - big ones or small ones - it takes courage to be honest about your feelings and then hear what the other person has to say. Learning to effectively cross these bridges is part of what makes friendship fun and exciting, and also scary. "Part of healthy self-esteem is knowing how to say what you think and feel even when you're in disagreement with other people or it feels emotionally risky," notes Dr. Steiner-Adair.

But when friendship is conducted online and through texts, kids are doing this in a context stripped of many of the most personal - and sometimes intimidating - aspects of communication. It's easier to keep your guard up when you're texting, so less is at stake. You aren't hearing or seeing the effect that your words are having on the other person. Because the conversation isn't happening in real time, each party can take more time to consider a response. No wonder kids say calling someone on the phone is "too intense"- it requires more direct communication, and if you aren't used to that it may well feel scary.

If kids aren't getting enough practice relating to people and getting their needs met in person and in real time, many of them will grow up to be adults who are anxious about our species' primary means of communication - talking. And of course social negotiations only get riskier as people get older and begin navigating romantic relationships and employment.

Cyberbullying and the imposter syndrome

The other big danger that comes from kids communicating more indirectly is that it has gotten easier to be cruel. "Kids text all sorts of things that you would never in a million years contemplate saying to anyone's face," says Donna Wick, EdD, a clinical and developmental psychologist. She notes that this seems to be especially true of girls, who typically don't like to disagree with each other in "real life."

"You hope to teach them that they can disagree without jeopardizing the relationship, but what social media is teaching them to do is disagree in ways that are more extreme and do jeopardize the relationship. It's exactly what you don't want to have happen," she says.

Dr. Steiner-Adair agrees that girls are particularly at risk. "Girls are socialized more to compare themselves to other people, girls in particular, to develop their identities, so it makes them more vulnerable to the downside of all this." She warns that a lack of solid self-esteem is often to blame. "We forget that relational aggression comes from insecurity and feeling awful about yourself, and wanting to put other people down so you feel better."

Peer acceptance is a big thing for adolescents, and many of them care about their image as much as a politician running for office, and to them it can feel as serious. Add to that the fact that kids today are getting actual polling data on how much people like them or their appearance via things like "likes." It's enough to turn anyone's head. Who wouldn't want to make themselves look cooler if they could? So kids can spend hours pruning their online identities, trying to project an idealized image. Teenage girls sort through hundreds of photos, agonizing over which ones to post online. Boys compete for attention by trying to out-gross one other, pushing the envelope as much as they can in the already disinhibited atmosphere online. Kids gang up on each other.

Adolescents have always been doing this, but with the advent of social media they are faced with more opportunities - and more traps - than ever before. When kids scroll through their feeds and see how great everyone seems, it only adds to the pressure. We're used to worrying about the impractical ideals that photoshopped magazine models give to our kids, but what happens with the kid next door is photoshopped, too? Even more confusing, what about when your own profile doesn't really represent the person that you feel like you are on the inside?

"Adolescence and the early twenties in particular are the years in which you are acutely aware of the contrasts between who you appear to be and who you think you are," says Dr. Wick. "It's similar to the 'imposter syndrome' in psychology. As you get older and acquire more mastery, you begin to realize that you actually are good at some things, and then you feel that gap hopefully narrow. But imagine having your deepest darkest fear be that you aren't as good as you look, and then imagine needing to look that good all the time! It's exhausting."

As Dr. Steiner-Adair explains, "Self-esteem comes from consolidating who you are." The more identities you have, and the more time you spend pretending to be someone you aren't, the harder it's going to be to feel good about yourself.

Stalking (and being ignored)

Another big change that has come with new technology and especially smart phones is that we are never really alone. Kids update their status, share what they're watching, listening to, and reading, and have apps that let their friends know their specific location on a map at all times. Even if a person isn't trying to keep his friends updated, he's still never out of reach of a text message. The result is that kids feel hyperconnected with each other. The conversation never needs to stop, and it feels like there's always something new happening.

"Whatever we think of the 'relationships' maintained and in some cases initiated on social media, kids never get a break from them," notes Dr. Wick. "And that, in and of itself, can produce anxiety. Everyone needs a respite from the demands of intimacy and connection; time alone to regroup, replenish and just chill out. When you don't have that, it's easy to become emotionally depleted, fertile ground for anxiety to breed."

It's also surprisingly easy to feel lonely in the middle of all that hyperconnection. For one thing, kids now know with depressing certainty when they're being ignored. We all have phones and we all respond to things pretty quickly, so when you're waiting for a response that doesn't come, the silence can be deafening. The silent treatment might be a strategic insult or just the unfortunate side effect of an online adolescent relationship that starts out intensely but then fades away.

"In the old days when a boy was going to break up with you, he had to have a conversation with you. Or at least he had to call," says Dr. Wick. "These days he might just disappear from your screen, and you never get to have the 'What did I do?' conversation." Kids are often left imagining the worst about themselves.

But even when the conversation doesn't end, being in a constant state of waiting can still provoke anxiety. We can feel ourselves being put on the back burner, we put others back there, and our very human need to communicate is effectively delegated there, too.

What should parents do?

Both experts interviewed for this article agreed that the best thing parents can do to minimize the risks associated with technology is to curtail their own consumption first. It's up to parents to set a good example of what healthy device usage looks like. Most of us check our phones or our email too much, out of either real interest or nervous habit. Kids should be used to seeing our faces, not our heads bent over a screen. Establish technology-free zones in the house and technology-free hours when no one uses the phone, including mom and dad. "Don't walk in the door after work in the middle of a conversation," Dr. Steiner-Adair advises. "Don't walk in the door after work, say 'hi' quickly, and then 'just check your email.' In the morning, get up a half hour earlier than your kids and check your email then. Give them your full attention until they're out the door. And neither of you should be using phones in the car to or from school because that's an important time to talk."

Not only does limiting the amount of time you spend plugged in to computers provide a healthy counterpoint to the tech-obsessed world, it also strengthens the parent-child bond and makes kids feel more secure. Kids need to know that you are available to help them with their problems, talk about their day, or give them a reality check.

"It is the mini-moments of disconnection, when parents are too focused on their own devices and screens, that dilute the parent-child relationship," Dr. Steiner-Adair warns. And when kids start turning to the internet for help or to process whatever happened during the day, you might not like what happens. "Tech can give your children more information that you can, and it doesn't have your values," notes Dr. Steiner-Adair. "It won't be sensitive to your child's personality, and it won't answer his question in a developmentally appropriate way."

In addition Dr. Wick advises delaying the age of first use as much as possible. "I use the same advice here that I use when talking about kids and alcohol - try to get as far as you can without anything at all." If your child is on a social media platform, Dr. Wick says that you should friend them and monitor their page. But she advises against going through text messages unless there is cause for concern. "If you have a reason to be worried then okay, but it better be a good reason. I see parents who are just plain old spying on their kids. Parents should begin by trusting their children. To not even give your kid the benefit of the doubt is incredibly damaging to the relationship. You have to feel like your parents think you're a good kid."

Offline, the gold standard advice for helping kids build healthy self-esteem is to get them involved in something that they're interested in. It could be sports or music or taking apart computers or volunteering - anything that sparks an interest and gives them confidence. When kids learn to feel good about what they can do instead of how they look and what they own, they're happier and better prepared for success in real life. That most of these activities also involve spending time interacting with peers face-to-face is just the icing on the cake.

Frequently Asked Questions

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How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers - Child Mind Institute

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How does social media affect teens? Experts say kids are growing up with more anxiety and less self-esteem due to social media. Read advice for parents from specialists in our article.