Novea Cerezo
Eng100 (26122)
Prof Red
Research project
28 June 2022
Is Social Media Worth Spending Your Precious Time In?
Aww, a calico kitten snuggling with a golden retriever puppy; what a cute and harmless
video! (unless extreme cuteness can kill you). Video clips of cute pets and animals are common
contents you can find on social media, but would you believe me if I tell you that videos exist
showing attention-seeking people licking the rim of a public toilet just for the likes and shares,
desperate to go viral and become famous? All sorts of clips and information from adorable pets
to anything you could possibly think of, mundane and bizarre, can be found in social media
platforms such as Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. With this fun,
unpredictable, and carefree feature of social media, more and more people are becoming
interested and involved with social media platforms. In fact, with almost eight billion people in
the world, approximately five billion of us are online each day (Johnson), making scrolling and
browsing social media a significant part of a lot of people’s daily routine. With social media
becoming a necessary daily activity for more than half of the world’s population, one must
consider social media from freedom of speech, false identity, source of news, misinformation,
way of communication, and cyberbullying.
Got a new phone? You can make an Instagram story about it. Adopted adorable puppies
and kittens? You’re welcome to share an image of them on Facebook. Just feeling good and
motivated? You can post your quote-of-the-day on Twitter; no one is stopping you. Social media
is that patient and lenient friend who just listens and lets you say and do everything you want; a
friend who wants you to express yourself freely. With this freedom of expression, social media
offers endless possibilities of presenting contents to an endless number of netizens, which fosters
an environment where everyone is welcome to share a little about themselves through different
posts in the form of images, videos, or even just a written post. In fact, “today’s generations are
now able to express themselves and exercise their freedom of speech through countless digital
channels, ranging from the written word, via blogs, to shared conversations on Twitter and
telemedicine—to name a few” (Lindsay). The freedom that social media provides encourages the
public to unleash their creativity and showcase what they are passionate about: art, music,
biology, or even the love for little things that make them happy like the smell of freshly baked
bread. For example, I love creating art through drawing and painting digitally. And as I
witnessed how other artists use social media such as YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter to share
their creations to the public with an intention to share positivity and their passion for art, I
decided to create an Instagram and Twitter art account for myself with the same intention. In one
of my posts, I participated in a drawing challenge with the theme being realistic portraits of a
female. To my surprise, I got comments from other popular art accounts and received almost a
hundred likes, which made me feel great and excited to post even more of my digital drawings.
Using Instagram and Twitter to show my digital paintings and drawing to the netizens, I became
fascinated with how such platforms provide infinite space to post endless creations with almost
no restrictions, which also opened me to not be ashamed to show my indefinite art style as I am
still exploring my own style. To post on social media, there are no deadlines or criteria to
whatever post you can make; you can utilize these platforms however it suits you. Since social
media creates a space where people are welcome to display their thoughts and whatever they
want to show the public, it’s also easy for someone to freely pretend to be someone they are not
and show fake personas.
“We kindly ask for your help through donations for my daughter’s chemotherapy,” a
heart-wrenching facebook caption says, also attached with a picture of an eighteen-month-old
baby girl with tubes attached to her nose. The post gathered thousands of dollars kindly donated
by generous individuals whose hearts were touched by the poor, struggling baby girl. What
precious evidence of humanity, you might think, but what if I tell you that there was never a poor
baby going through chemotherapy, but instead a forty-year-old woman who is wicked enough to
pose as a helpless mother to extract money from people? With the recurring theme of freedom
that social media offers, it’s easy for someone to lie about their identity in public. Like, what if
the sweet lady you’ve been talking to for the past few months online is actually a forty-year-old
man charged with a sexual assault? Or that online bestfriend you found during the pandemic
actually talks bad about you behind your back? The ugly truth behind social media is that it can
lead to “people creating an incredibly fake persona” (Brown). Research shows “This type of
Internet scam is manufactured by social engineers whose main goal is to exploit Internet users by
getting them to take the first step(s) in their own victimization” (Muscanell, et al.). With social
media, one can absolutely make their public image seem respectable and polite through posting
quotes promoting kindness, when in reality, they refuse to give their seat up to the pregnant lady
or the elderly. Often, people also post to gather attention and reaction from the public. To give an
example of how fake people can be online, Justin, a social media user, says that he met someone
online when he was in grade 10. The person claimed to be Russian royalty and even though he
was skeptical, Justin ended up being convinced. According to Justin, the Russian royalty had a
full profile and the way he talked he was so convincing and knowledgeable. Justin started off
thinking it was a joke but it became increasingly possible that he was real as they talked more.
Justin and the fake Russian royalty began playing video games online, with Justin providing his
time and attention to a person whom he thought was a genuine friend. The story ends up being
full of twists and Justin’s catfish ended up admitting he wasn’t the person he said he was
(Gonzales). Whether pretending to be nice or intentionally wicked, false identity and deceiving
other individuals is an abuse to social media. However, although it is true that social media can
be a source of fake identities that scams and tricks other people online, social media can be
helpful by providing real-time news and information.
A Twitter post by a farmer says, “Alert! I have spotted a growing fire in the forest;
evacuate right now!” All of his followers, who are also mostly his neighbors, saw the alarming
post and hastily evacuated to the nearest community center, away from the dangers of a burning
forest. Within the same day, the forest fire nearly reached people’s houses, but luckily, with the
farmer’s early warning, no one got hurt. In addition, financial aid was offered to the farmers in
need and extensive investigation occurred because the twitter post of the burning forest garnered
thousands of retweets and became trending worldwide, attracting the attention of the public.
Because social media posts can be seen by the public, it’s easy to engage with other people and
get their attention, allowing for news to spread rapidly. In fact, “over 50% of people learn about
breaking news on social media” (Pros and Cons/Social Networking). Social media is a source for
the latest news, which is helpful in raising awareness and seeking immediate action and attention
from people. A perfect example of the social media’s reach can be seen in the way the story
about the Amazon Rainforest fire spread. Images of fires purportedly devouring sections of the
world's largest rainforest have gone viral on Twitter. Widespread awareness of Amazon's
predicament was facilitated by social media through posts that are shared by thousands of
people. The attention to the Amazon forest fire started with a few posts and was soon present on
everyone’s newsfeed across different social media platforms. As a result, investigation and
research had been conducted to identify the cause of the fire and hopefully prevent any more
devastating forest fires from happening (Nawrat). With social media’s feature enabling
individuals to create real-time posts and reactions, the spread of news and awareness is made
more efficient and effective. However, even though social media allows for quick access to news
and information, we are not 100% sure if these news and information are reliable.
“There’s a humongous asteroid coming towards Earth and it’s going to cause us all to
die!” says the Facebook post that was shared by your friend. The caption was accompanied by
images of blazing asteroids and even suspicious quotes claiming that the information is from
NASA. We should definitely be prepared if an asteroid is going to hit Earth, but how are we sure
that the post is reliable and panics are reasonable? With the freedom offered by social media,
anyone can post anything, and with that, we are never certain whether a post states the truth or
not. The range of misinformation starts with diet, goes to race, and even promotes election lies.
Social media and the ability to post information on the web “allows for the rapid dissemination
of unsubstantiated rumors and conspiracy theories that often elicit rapid, large, but naive social
responses” (Del Vicario et al.). The spread of misinformation and fake news are increasingly
becoming a daily occurrence on social media, providing the public false information that can
lead to poor judgment and decisions. For example, Dr. Aeschlimann provided a firsthand account
of seeing an unvaccinated patient admitted to his hospital with a severe coronavirus infection
who had delayed treatment for a week and instead obtained prescriptions for both ivermectin and
hydroxychloroquine despite worsening symptoms. Dr. Aeschlimann testified that the “patient’s
severe COVID-19 infection and costly hospitalization could have been prevented in at least two
ways: either by vaccination before the illness occurred or by the prompt administration of
proven effective therapies.” Ms. Kumar related her own mother’s concerns about the safety of
the coronavirus vaccines after receiving links to misinformation videos from friends and family
that “all had a common theme: ‘Don’t trust the vaccine. Don’t trust the doctors and don’t trust
the government that is trying to inject you and harm you.’” Ms. Kumar recounted that her mother
expressed doubts about getting vaccinated after seeing these videos, explaining that “it took me
almost seven weeks to finally get her to take that vaccine.” Although social media is prone to
fake news and false information, it is also important to take into consideration that social media
can be utilized to communicate and maintain relationships with other people.
You’re graduating this May? Lucky you! My elementary school best friend from the
Philippines texted me when I teased her that I will be graduating two months earlier than her.
With the eighteen hours difference in our time zones, it’s difficult to catch up with my friends
and relatives in the Philippines at the same time of the day. When I wake up, they’re still snoring
and drooling; when they wake up, I'm already yawning. Thankfully, there exists social media
apps such as Messenger, which is a messaging app that allows one to text anyone as long as they
have a Facebook account. With the universality of social media, one can easily communicate and
stay connected with loved ones or even just to have social interactions with other netizens,
especially in this time of pandemic, where many are working from home and are unable to visit
friends and relatives due to the risks of the coronavirus. As a matter of fact, “social media users
say that staying in touch with current and old friends and family members is a major reason they
use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or LinkedIn” (Heimlich). Social media is
certainly serving the public by being an efficient tool of communication, allowing individuals to
maintain connection with family and friends, and to also establish relationships with other social
media users. To demonstrate how social media can be used as a way to communicate with other
people, Bibek Gurung, an avid social media user shares: “Molly Raskin first popped up on my
radar in a shitposting Facebook group I had created in order to kill time during a terribly boring
job I had at the time. This was early 2020 and she posted a very sarcastic and funny response to
something that I thought was absolutely hilarious. We have very different daily lives and
backgrounds, but extremely similar interests and personalities, so even if we lived in the same
city, I don’t think we ever would’ve met without the internet. We talk almost every single day
via Facebook Messenger. Occasionally video. I have several friends who live all over the world
who I am very close to” (Wong). Since individuals are able to talk to other people through social
media applications, other people can easily abuse this opportunity and turn it into a tool for
cyberbullying and cyberharassment.
“Why are you using a beauty filter? You must look like shit in real life,” says a harsh
comment under a teenager’s Instagram selfie post.Nowadays, more and more mean and
malicious comments are seen on social media platforms where people’s posts are ridiculed and
bashed by shameless individuals who mostly have anonymous accounts. Amanda Giordano,
principal investigator of the study about the link between social media and bullying, said that
“there are some people who engage in cyberbullying online because of the anonymity and the
fact that there’s no retaliation” (Kao). Social media is unable to certainly stop someone from
making inappropriate and disrespectful comments because of the freedom to post or comment
anything, which in turn, results in cyberbullying. For example, a tenth grade student, Lucie,
shares her cyberbullying experience: “I posted a photo of myself on Instagram with the caption
“Life is good”. A bunch of people including a boy I previously was hanging out with attacked
this post with really mean and rude comments about me. I was so upset that I privately texted the
girl who seemed to be leading these comments asking her why she was writing these hurtful
things and she replied by saying “it’s a joke and we are just having fun.” She then continued to
write more mean things about me and even made a post about me on her spam account,
purposefully so I could see it. She threatened me saying “I deserved this” and that she would hurt
me and live stream it for other people to watch. I was scared and devastated when students from
my grade who I thought were my friends commented about how funny she was and how
annoying I was. People from other schools that I didn’t know even chimed in! I felt attacked and
all alone” (Madison Web Solutions). Lucie isn’t the only victim of cyberbullying, but her
unfortunate experience of being bullied through social media gives us evidence that social media
is able to forge an unsafe and uncomfortable environment where anyone can be bullied by any
social media user.
Social media is increasingly becoming a part of everyone’s daily routine, so it’s
absolutely vital to know its positive and negative aspects in order to decide if social media
should continue to be used by the public. In this Information Age, social media has become the
main outlet for content, information, news, and communication; however, this versatility also
makes social media susceptible to anonymity, misinformation, and cyberbullying, all proving
that one must be careful and mindful when using social media. Before this research, I saw social
media as an entirely positive array of platforms that aid humans live their life more comfortably
and conveniently through its contents of life hacks and food recipes; however, it was shocking
for me that social media can also produce negative effects such as misinformation about serious
matters like the coronavirus and people believing that drinking lemon juice with baking soda
would prevent them from getting the virus, but end up having severe acid reflux instead. The
negative angles of social media such as misinformation and fake news tell us that we can never
be sure of what we see online, so it’s best to always check the information from credible and
reliable sources. Despite the downsides, social media can be utilized by anyone and achieve its
greatest potential as an extremely powerful and universal instrument as long as humans know
that there should be moderation and limitation when using social media. So, you can either be
useful, productive, and spread positivity to the public with adorable cat and dog videos or
demonstrate how stupid humans can be by joining a viral challenge that involves licking a
disgusting public toilet.
Works Cited
Aeschlimann, Jeffrey. “Hearing Exposes Widespread Harm Caused by Coronavirus
Misinformation.” House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, 17 Nov. 2021,
coronavirus.house.gov/news/press-releases/hearing-exposes-widespread-harm-causedcoronavirus-misinformation.
Brown, Lachlan. “Why Are People so Fake on Social Media? The Top 10 Reasons.”
Hack Spirit, 19 Aug. 2021, hackspirit.com/living-a-fake-life-on-social-media/.
Del Vicario, Michela, et al. “The Spreading of Misinformation Online.” Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 113, no. 3, Jan. 2016, pp. 554–59,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1517441113.
Gonzales, Shivani. “A Story of a Real Life ‘Catfish.’” The Journal, 29 Mar. 2018,
www.queensjournal.ca/story/2018-03-28/lifestyle/a-story-of-a-real-life-catfish/.
Heimlich, Russell. “Using Social Media to Keep in Touch.” Pew Research Center, Pew
Research Center, 22 Dec. 2011, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2011/12/22/usingsocial-media-to-keep-in-touch/.
Johnson, Joseph. “Global Digital Population 2021.” Statista, 26 Apr. 2022,
www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/.
Kao, Kathryn. “Social Media Addiction Linked to Cyberbullying.” UGA Today,
University of Georgia, 30 Mar. 2021, news.uga.edu/social-media-addiction-linked-tocyberbullying/.
Lindsay, Ellie. “The Significance of Social Media in a Post-Pandemic World.” British
Journal of Community Nursing, vol. 26, no. Sup12, Dec. 2021, pp. S8–9,
https://doi.org/10.12968/bjcn.2021.26.sup12.s8.
Madison Web Solutions. “Lucie’s Cyberbullying Story.” Cybersmile.org, 2017,
www.cybersmile.org/blog/lucies-cyberbullying-story.
Muscanell, Nicole L., et al. “Weapons of Influence Misused: A Social Influence Analysis
of Why People Fall Prey to Internet Scams[The Views ].” Social & Personality
Psychology Compass, vol. 8, no. 7, July 2014, pp. 388–96. EBSCOhost, https://doiorg.hccproxy.lib.hawaii.edu/10.1111/spc3.12115.
Nawrat, Allie. “Have You Heard the Amazon Is on Fire? The Power of Social Media.”
Verdict, 6 Sept. 2019, www.verdict.co.uk/amazon-fires-social-media/.
“Pros and Cons/Social Networking.” Vitaeducation, vitaeducation.org/wpcontent/uploads /Social-Networking.pdf.
Wong, Brittany. “We’re Best Friends... But We’ve Never Met in Real Life.” HuffPost, 10
Mar. 2022, www.huffpost.com/entry/were-best-friends-but-weve-never-metirl_l_6229059fe4b079f8bbb387ff.