UPNFM-CURSRC
The Impact of Social Media on Society
Reading & Writing Workshop
Darian Gabriela Reyes Paz
Monday, November 8th, 2021
Introduction
Social media has a huge impact on society, which can make us change our personality and our mentality.
To illustrate, through social media, anyone online has the power to obtain any type of information to add to their
knowledge bank. In addition, in today's world, it is undeniable that social media plays an important role in
impacting our life, our economy, and our overall view of the world. Nevertheless, social media has both positive
and negative impacts, for example, positive impacts can recognize and build relationships with many people and
the negative impact is it can make a crime, so we will see the positive and negative impact of social media.
Body
Generally, when we look at the positive aspects of social media, we find numerous advantages. For
instance, with the help of social media, “we can find new friends and communities; network with other people
who share similar interests or ambitions, share music with others, photos, links, etc.” (Parrack, 2019). As a result,
it allows us to interact easily and simply with people around the world. In addition, it helps us with educational
purposes, for example, when we want to learn more or practice something we can follow anyone professional to
learn from him or her and improve our knowledge about any field. Another example of an advantage that is one
of the best known, is that it benefits companies that want to promote their brands. For instance, they create posts,
upload Instagram or Facebook stories, make videos, etc. For that reason, social media has become the center of
advertising and offers you great opportunities for connecting with the customer.
However, social media has also harmed society, we have to know that if the use of social media is not
monitored, it can lead to serious consequences. For example, “by sharing personal information, one's privacy is
at risk of impersonations, theft, and stalking”. (McLean Hospital, 2021). It invades your privacy like never before
and that is one of the biggest problems that can damage you. Besides how there is not a certain age to use social
media, the oversharing happening on social media makes children a target for predators and hackers, therefore,
sharing on social media, especially by children, must be monitored at all times. In addition, we shouldn’t trust
all the information on social media because there is a lot of false information that the only thing they seek is to
attract users, for example, there is a lot of fake news, misleading advertising, fake videos, photos and people who
pretend to be someone else, therefore these actions may misinform or cheat us.
On the other hand, each platform is designed to be addictive and associated with many mental health
problems, such as anxiety, depression, isolation, and suicidal ideas. For example, many people only seek to harm
you and they do it through offensive comments, teasing, harassment, etc. All that makes you feel insecure with
yourself, hurt your feelings and believe that you are not valuable or enough. But this can be avoided if we decrease
our time on social media, and it’s important to remember that social media can never be a replacement for realworld human connection. It requires face-to-face contact with other people to relieve stress and feel happier,
healthier, and more positive. Ironically, it is a technology designed to bring people closer together, but spending
too much time on social media can make you feel more alone, fall into these mental health problems, and make
us forget about the real world.
Conclusion
Consequently, as technology is growing, social media has become the routine for every person, people
are seen as addicted to this technology every day. However, despite the positive impact and how much it entertains
us, social media allows other people to steal our personal information and in that way can create false profiles.
On other the hand, excessive use of social media is associated with a lack of appreciation for mental health and
causes certain kinds of problems. As a result, there are many reasons with which social media can affect our
society, although it all depends on the person and their use. Social media is part of us, hence, let's learn and teach
how to use it correctly.
References

Here’s How Social Media Affects Your Mental Health | McLean Hospital.
(2021, February 9). https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/it-or-not-social-medias-affecting-yourmental-health

Illustration Essay: A Writing Guide, Topics, and Examples. (2021). Myperfectwords.com
https://www.myperfectwords.com/blog/illustration-essay

Parrack, D. (2019, December 8). 7 Positive Effects of Social Media on Society.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/positive-impact-social-networking-sites-society-opinion/