Should we all delete our social media accounts? (Essay), Tesine universitarie di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Should we all delete our social media accounts? (Essay) e più Tesine universitarie in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! Should we all delete our social media accounts? ABSTRACT The 21st century is the era of communication technologies and social media: whether we like it or not, we are living in the age of likes and constant availability. The benefits of these platforms are well known, but can we say the same about their drawbacks? More and more people are experiencing feelings like unhappiness, envy, stress and anxiety after using social media. Recent studies have shown the link between social media use and depression; from researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore to renowned psychologists and Facebook researchers themselves. The aim of this essay is to analyze the results of these studies in light of my personal experience of a young girl living and struggling in this modern world, as well as to understand if using social media without being badly affected by them is possible. If you ask Jaron Lanier, a famous American computer scientist, musician and activist, the answer is no: if we do not delete our social media accounts, we are always going be losers. 1 ESSAY “It takes discipline not to let social media steal your time.” (Alexis Ohanian) LinkedIn was launched in May 2003, YouTube in December 2005, Twitter in March 2006 and shortly afterwards, in September 2006, Facebook became available to the wide public (before it was limited to college students). The world of social media was once again shaken in October 2010 by the launch of Instagram, acquired by Facebook in 2012, and more recently, in 2016, by TikTok. Social media has changed our lives forever: we can easily connect with people, be aware of world events, express ourselves and learn something new. However, not all that glitters is gold. On social media platforms people show only the highlights and the good sides of their lives, putting a lot of pressure on other users who may feel inferior and in need to show the same awesome content. This social comparison can create feelings like envy, sadness, fear of missing out, unsatisfaction, low self-esteem and anxiety, and the overwhelming quantity of content and data people are exposed to is causing stress and inattention. Even if further research is still needed, recent studies have shown the link between social media use and depression. Researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have found out that the more time spent on Facebook, the higher the risk of suffering from depression, and that those with signs of depression linked to social media use spend even more time on it. Their study, published in August 2021 by Assoc Prof Edson C. Tandoc Jr and research fellow Zhang Hao Goh (from the NTU Centre for Information Integrity and the Internet), started in 2016 with 1240 people aged between 18 and 64, who according to Prof Tandoc spent an average of about 2 minutes a day. My childhood and part of my teenage years were free from social media and the overwhelming quantity of information and images we are exposed to nowadays and for this I am truly grateful; or else my recovery from depression and eating disorders would have certainly been way harder. When Instagram became more popular and stories came out, I started to notice that, not only it was highly time-consuming and addicting, but it also made me sad. All these pictures showing beautiful people with amazing and successful lives made me feel like I was not enough. Besides, I felt the pressure to do something special to post and I did not like the fact that I knew (or I thought to know) everything about people I did not even know or that I had not met in a long time. Even if in 2017 I finally deleted my Instagram account, this did not solve completely the problem: I sometimes feel ‘fomo’ or the need to post pictures of myself or what I am doing to get likes and show everyone that I am here in this world, that I am worthy, interesting, fun and pretty. Social media created the idea that everything that is not posted has no value, and that all we do and are must be interesting, at least in our posts, but life is not always like that; sometimes it is boring, uninteresting and unexciting. It is just life. Giving up completely on social media is hard, especially if you are not a hermit living on a desert island, but it may be worth it. A common argument against the theory that social media makes individuals more depressed and lonely is simply that perhaps those who are more depressed and lonely are more inclined to use social media as a way of reaching out (M. Gigen, healthline.com) and that it is not clear if social media use is the cause or the effect of this bad feelings. 5 Instagram head of public policy Karina Newton stated that "Issues like negative social comparison and anxiety exist in the world, so they’re going to exist on social media too" and that her company is working toward making some relevant improvements such as addressing negative social comparison and negative body image, “nudging” people to content more likely to make them feel good. In conclusion, yes, I do think that the link between depression and social media is real and already evident on many people, but also that we should embrace the reality we live in without succumbing to it. We could avoid things and people that can harm our well-being, delete our social media accounts, limit the time we spend on these platforms, or we could just use them but being aware of how they work and to what extent they can present fake and embellished content. We all need to choose our side and live our life as freely as we can. Freedom, in any case, is only possible by constantly struggling for it. Albert Einstein 6 REFERENCES Gayle Damien, theguardian.com. “Facebook aware of Instagram’s harmful effect on teenage girls, leak reveals” (September 14, 2021). Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/sep/14/facebook-aware-instagram-harmful-effect- teenage-girls-leak-reveals>. Retreived January 3rd, 2022. Lanier, Jaron. 2018. Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. Henry Holt and Co.: New York. Lee Davelle, herworld.com. “It’s Not Just #Fomo… Social Media Can Actually Make You Depressed” (April 26, 2017). Available at: <https://www.herworld.com/life/social-media-fomo- anxiety-depression-facebook-twitter-instagram/>. Retreived January 3rd, 2022. Mammoer Gigen, healthline.com. “The FOMO Is Real: How Social Media Increases Depression and Loneliness” (December 9, 2018). Available at: <https://www.healthline.com/health-news/social-media-use-increases-depression-and- loneliness#Our-curated-lives>. Retreived January 3rd, 2022. Milmo Dan, theguardian.com. “Frances Haugen: ‘I never wanted to be a whistleblower. But lives were in danger’” (Reviewed October 24, 2021). Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/24/frances-haugen-i-never-wanted-to-be-a- whistleblower-but-lives-were-in-danger>. Retreived January 16th, 2022. Quing Ang, herworld.com. “Risk Of Depression Grows As You Spend More Time On Facebook” (September 1, 2021). Available at: https://www.herworld.com/life/wellness/depression-facebook- ntu-study/. Retreived December 19th, 2021. Quing Ang, straitstimes.com. “Risk of depression grows with more time spent on Facebook: NTU study” (August 16, 2021). Available at: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/risk-of-depression- grows-with-more-time-spent-on-facebook-ntu-study>. Retreived December 19th, 2021. Upham Becky, everydayhealth.com. “Facebook Comes Under Fire After Whistleblower and Leaked Documents Reveal Negative Impact on Girls” (Reviewed October 9, 2021). Available at: https://www.everydayhealth.com/public-health/facebook-comes-under-fire-after-whistleblower- and-leaked-documents-reveal-negative-impact-on-young-girls/>. Retreived January 16th, 2021. Upham Becky, everydayhealth.com. “Social Media Use Tied to Increase of Depressive Symptoms in Adults” (Reviewed November 30, 2021). Available at: https://www.everydayhealth.com/depression/social-media-use-tied-to-increase-of-depressive- symptoms-in-adults/. Retreived Retreived January 3rd, 2022. 7