Introduction:
Social media, undeniably, has an major impact on our society today in many positive and negative ways. Millions of people around the world log on to social media on a daily basis, and many use it to catch up with old and new friends or spread the word about a good cause. However, some use it as a tool  for bullying and for unjust causes. There are many others that use it as a creative way to express how they feel and as a peek into their lives. Over sixty percent of Americans log on to social media a day, and we see many influential Americans use it such as Donald Trump, Kevin Durant, and Barack Obama. There are many opinions, pros, cons, and complications that come with being on and actively using social media. I am going to go into depth on each of these topics and I believe that the benefits of social media outweigh the downsides.

Pros:
Social media affects our lives in many positive ways, and can be used as a great tool for spreading worthy causes. Obviously, social media is a great way for friends to connect and stay in touch with each other. It is a way for people to interact with their “heroes” and keep up with all the trends. It does create and provide many jobs to people. Let’s start off with the worthy causes that range from fundraising accounts to inspirational accounts all over the web. One, for example, is cleaneatz, an instagram account that shows people healthy food to eat and inspires them to eat right. There are thousands of accounts like cleaneatz that are inspiring people to do better, and it is great to see people raising other people up rather than tearing them down. However, social media’s true intentions were to make a place where people can stay in touch with one another, friends are constantly moving away and before social media it would be very hard for friends to keep up with each other. However, now that we have Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter it is very easy to keep up with old friends. In a poll by the Social Times 84% of people use social media to keep up with faraway friends and relatives, but many people also use social media to follow celebrities, politicians, and athletes. It is an excellent way for them to inform fans about what's going on in their lives and what they are planning to do.  Every day, we hear stories of how people’s confidence is destroyed by social media, but we forget how social media can also help build people up.  Social media can help people gain self confidence. Thousands  of teens post selfies everyday, and of course there is some negative response but there is a great amount of positive reaction with comments saying how beautiful, pretty that person is. This positive feedback can really improve someone’s confidence and help them become more outgoing. The social media juggernauts, facebook, instagram, twitter,  also like to point out that they have really helped the job market, and Facebook claims it  has created 4.5 million jobs worldwide. However, what they are really saying is people feed off the business of social media and that creates jobs such as blogging, modeling, sports information, and many more. Social media has undoubtedly changed the world, and it has positively affected an uncountable number of lives.

Cons:
On the other hand, social media does have some very bad aspects that make me question whether we should we even use social media. The biggest issue of them all is easily cyberbullying. Cyberbullying can happen all over the internet, but it comes up the most through social media. Over 92% of teens in the U.S. use social media, and now any person, especially teens, are no longer safe in their own house. Kids can now be bullied anywhere now and it's very disturbing thinking about “Am I really safe and secure?” when I log onto social media. People, today, can have their dignity and self-confidence destroyed with something as simple as a hateful comment or something as intense as a “hate” account. It’s wrong. Another big problem is there are many “scam” accounts that try to convince, usually, younger people to buy a fake product or a product they will never receive. I sometimes get tagged in some posts from these “scam” accounts and they range from “get a macbook for 50 dollars” to donate to a “worthy” cause that ends up just being a ploy to make a quick dollar. Believe it or not, but there are people who will fall for this, and it's wrong for these crooks to swindle a person, most of the time a kid, into giving them a good amount of money.  There is also clickjacking, doxing, and pharming which are all malicious methods of stealing your private information. Also, there is a  large outcry that social media may be making us antisocial. In a poll by the Social Times, 24% of people said they have missed important events of their lives while trying to document it on social media. Very ironic, I know, but this is the reality we live in where if something big happens it has to be put on your social media account.  Also, in that same poll, 39% of people said they would rather socialize online than face to face. This is an  intriguing stat because, why yes, there is communication with another person which is by definition considered being social, but are they really socializing? The only way some people can talk is through DM’s or comments because they are too scared to have a face to face conversation. Social media can really suck and restrict our growth as a society, but it is up to each of us to decide if the positives outweigh the negatives.

My Opinion:
I, personally, use social media a good amount and use it as a tool to keep up with current and old friends, and as a way to keep up with all the trends. However, I do see the downside to it and know it needs to improve. There are too many stories of people hurting themselves because of a hateful comment from an anonymous follower or of people having to quit social media because it made them miserable such as “Instagram Star” Essena O’Neill. (If you want to learn more about Essena, I will put a link below leading to her interview.) I think it is  about balance; you need to find the right balance for yourself. For me, it is not about having followers of likes on a picture; it is about keeping up with friends and seeing what is trending. That is not always the case though. There are people who are obsessed with obtaining followers and getting likes, but that is cool too because it does not matter how you use social media as long as it is beneficial for you and not bringing down another. It is about what works for you, and of course Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter need to get much better about handling their downsides. A couple of suggestions that I have for these social media juggernauts: if someone gets reported maybe you all should actually ban them for a certain length of time depending on the amount of times they have been reported instead of sending that stupid warning. Another way to bring down cyberbullying is maybe have all accounts automatically start with the private setting on rather than off. Finally, how about not letting anyone else post a picture with someone else without the other person’s permission? At the end of the day, each of us have to make the decision to get onto social media, and I hope readers can ask themselves if it would benefit them or not.

Links: 1. leads to Essena O’Neill’s interview. 2. Leads to an interesting infographic.

1. http://abcnews.go.com/US/instagram-star-quit-social-media-positive-role-model/story?id=34987290
2. http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/files/2012/06/social-media-socially-awkward.jpg