Married At First Ding

Ding. Ding. Ding.

The sounds of notifications from retweets and likes on Instagram just won’t stop. You try to continue your work but the thought of checking social media is too enticing to give up. Swipe. Larry from Ireland is posting about his new pet lobster on Facebook and Cheryl is posting the same bikini pics from a vacation she took 5 months ago. Nothing new here but social media continuing to make its impact on life in the United States and abroad.

This is the era of social media. Social media is defined as any site that permits interactions between users in a social setting. Interacting wasn’t always a simple task. In years prior, in order to converse with someone in another country, one of the parties must buy a calling card with minutes attached to it. It was a hard task because conversations had to be made short in order to conserve those minutes or risk having your line cut off mid-conversation. Sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube have made this a thing of the past. These sites allow for people around the world to connect to one another with the click of a mouse. WhatsApp allows for international calls without the need of a calling card, while Facebook lets users see what their friends in other states are up to. This was a positive impact on life because humans have a natural predisposition to be social beings. Social media allows people to satisfy that craving by communicating with others. Leaving their homes to talk to others is no longer necessary.

Social media has also negatively impacted its users. The technology’s impact on body image has been monumental. Disorders like body dysmorphia and anorexia nervosa have been triggered through social media usage. Body dysmorphic disorder is when the image you perceive in the mirror does not match what is actually there. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that is characterized by eating less than necessary to lose weight. On sites like Instagram and Facebook, many users tend to only post their best photos. So when a typical person scrolls down their timeline, they are flooded with images that have been heavily edited, leading to an unrealistic beauty standard in their mind. People then go through unhealthy habits to try to achieve this unrealistic standard. A theory exists that can describe this phenomenon. The social comparison theory says that individuals determine their own self-worth based on how their life compares to the perceived life of those around them. This theory says that based on the life people appear to be living on social media, the self-worth of that viewer can be lowered or higher. Since many people post their cream of the crop photographs, their lives seem better in comparison.

Personally, social media has impacted my life. I can figure out what my relatives are up to and I have been able to rekindle old friendships of people I thought I’d never see again. A simple status update on Facebook can go a long way. It gives me the up-to-date news and keeps me in the loop of what’s happening. Social media is a source of entertainment, news, connections and more. It’s hard for me to fathom that there was a time that social media wasn’t there to build these connections and entertain myself.

Social media allows for users to keep in touch with one another. It’s the place to watch your nephew’s first steps or hear your friend’s new job offer. With its ability to connect people across the globe, it can also connect you with people who aren’t the most genuine with their photographs and videos. Social media can negatively affect a person’s perception of body image. With most technologies there are positives and negatives and social media is no exception. Social media has multiple purposes, and you just have to find the one that’s right for you.