Week #9: Dark Side of Social Media

I definitely think there is a positive side to social currency. Social currency refers to us as individuals being the product and sharing what makes us look good. Therefore, we can leverage this and use it to our advantage. If you have an entertaining or sharp Instagram feed for instance, you will bring in sponsors and gain a lot of attention and following. In some cases, this has built people’s careers, leading to great success. In addition, we can really create our social media image the way we want to. We can craft it to advertise the best parts of ourselves, which we may not be able to do or show without the help of social media.

The most important thing that parents and/or educational institutions can do to help guard against online harassment of their children/students is to try their best to stay knowledgeable and observant. Parents should try to create good communication with their children, where they feel comfortable telling them anything. Parents should definitely not snoop their children’s phones, as in the long run that will do more damage than good and make them lose all trust and safety in their parents. However, if parents are able to just talk to their children and ask if anything has been bothering them — ultimately, just having a clear line of communication, can go a long way. However, this is all dependent on the age of the children. If they are quite young, I know some parents who have set up their email account, for instance, so they also get their children’s emails and they can filter anything that is inappropriate. However, this will not slide with the children after they get into their tween/teen years. Therefore, another good thing they can do is just sit down and have a chat with them and try to relate to them and anything they may be experiencing online. Now, in terms of teachers, they can ban social media sites and cell phones during the school day. Not to mention, if an incident happens online outside of school time, they can still intervene and have a meeting with the students involved. The teachers or principal can assign a detention or suspension depending on the situation. Finally, what I think is great and is currently happening at most schools is having speakers come in to talk to the student body. These speakers are typically people who have gotten bullied online in the past and they speak about their experiences and this usually seems to have an impact.

I am online a lot during the day. It is the first thing I check when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I check before I go to bed at night. I also have quite the FOMO, so having my phone with me at all times is a necessity. However, I do realize that getting all caught up with my phone and social media does severely increase my stress levels and I already consider myself quite a stressed out person. Therefore, I do give myself some social media detox’s. I will try to not go on social media — specifically when I am studying or trying to focus. Not to mention, my phone is usually dead so that helps with making me stay off social media! However, in order to avoid potential harassment, I block random accounts or accounts that don’t make me feel comfortable, from viewing my profile. If someone comments something rude or negative I will immediately delete their comment and block them so they can no longer do that or make me feel bad. Therefore, what I would first recommend to others is to give themselves social media breaks. Too much of it can honestly make you sick and lower your self-esteem, which is horrible! Additionally, I would recommend them to block anybody that is harassing them or just making them feel uncomfortable. Blocking helps a lot because it allows you to simply block out potential negativity to ultimately help your self-care.

I would say the biggest mental health challenge facing university students today is anxiety and depression. In fact, I think social media immensely contributes to this. There are all these Instagram models or even peers that have amazing pictures and feeds, which can really lower someone’s self-esteem and make them feel bad about themselves. We tend to get caught up in this online world and forget the fact that these popular Instagram individuals have photographers taking their pictures, along with the perfect lighting setup, and Photoshop experts. Not to mention, nobody posts about the negative aspects of their lives and many people forget this and become depressed and envious of others’ seemingly “perfect” lives. Therefore, you truly have to take what you see on social media with a grain of salt. Not to mention, social media contributes to anxiety and I can definitely attest to this. I regularly go on Snapchat on a Friday or Saturday night to see what my friends are up to. If I’m not invited and I see them out partying and having fun, I do get stressed out and it does not make me feel good about myself. Social media is so great but can also truly trap you inside this stress-induced circle. University students are already stressed out enough with schooling and thinking about their future and social media oftentimes leads to irrelevant, extraneous stress.