Everyone's heard the statistics about social media and the general consensus s is that using social media makes people unhappy. BBC did a study back in January of this year which supported the idea, but only mostly. The short version is: regarding things like anxiety, depression, addiction, etc., social media makes these things worse in most cases. But some people do benefit from using social media.
Personally, I'm very utilitarian when it comes to social media. I use it almost exclusively for communicating with other people or looking up information about a new band or tour dates or something. I rarely spend time scrolling through facebook and I only just recently got a twitter and instagram. I can't personally relate to many of the results found in the study because I just don't use social media often, with the exception of Tumblr. Tumblr can be tailored to bring me things I want to see like cute dogs, funny memes, or cool artistic things. It never makes me sad and I don't feel like it's a waste of time; I'm not comparing myself to anyone or anything.
I mention the phrase "waste of time" because it was mentioned in the BBC article that I linked to earlier." In 2014, researchers in Austria found that participants reported lower moods after using Facebook for 20 minutes compared to those who just browsed the internet. The study suggested that people felt that way because they saw it as a waste of time."
My personal opinion is that social media shouldn't be used as a pastime. I think it should be used for things that wouldn't be considered small talk if it were a conversation. One of the benefits the article mentioned was when people are depressed about some kind of thing and make a post about it, they get positive responses either as comments or private messages, leading to increased moods.
I'm not anti-social media. I do think social media is important, but I think we as a society never learned how to use it in productive, meaningful ways. It was just thrown at us and corporations said "Go nuts! Post about everything all the time!" And that's where I feel the danger comes from.
I feel it's also worth mentioning that after it was thrown at us, the creators got real good at manipulating us into using it more. Like a drug dealer giving us a taste and getting us addicted, forcing us to go back for more.
As an aspiring musician, DJ, and general public figure, I'll be using social media more often. You can follow me on twitter and instagram @SuperDJApollo and like my page on facebook @WheelsOfSteelApollo. Check out what I'm doing with music, but remember to do it in moderation.
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