One of the challenges that were closely associated with covid-19 was lockdown. People were not allowed to go about their daily activities in public, friends could not visit each other, work had to be done from home via technology, and this had major spite on socialization. People could not physically interact with themselves, and it would have been a serious challenge if it had continued. Social media played a major role in connecting people together, either via video or audio chats, or texting. It would be safe to say that social media came to the rescue of the world as it helped people stay in touch since they could not meet physically due to the restriction on movement. Covid-19 vaccines were discovered earlier than expected, and this helped in returning the flow of events to their previous in some parts of the world.

Generally, social media helps us keep in touch with each other, transact, interact, network, and share ideas with people across the world. This is very important and can serve as a few of the positives of social media on society. However, a huge vacuum has been created by social media, there is now a significant difference in the way people interact. A typical example is how someone would react to the news of a sudden tragedy, instead of genuine expression of emotion, one would simply react with an emoji, and these reactions do little or nothing in conveying the genuine feeling of the person who just received the news, neither will it pass on the care and love that the affected person would require. To create a balance, it is necessary to consider the pros and cons of social media in today’s world.

PROS AND CONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Without wasting so much time, let’s look at the pros and cons of social media’s influence on socialization.

Pros:

1. Connects people who are distant: Whether you are cities away, or countries away, or continents away, social media has done a very herculean task in keeping us in touch. Unlike the ancient times where we had to send letters and wait weeks or even months for the letters to be delivered, social media connects us instantly, enabling us to even see ourselves irrespective of our location.
2. Makes business transactions easy: Another part of life that social media has greatly influenced is the business world. Now people can do business from the comfort of their homes at very paces. Businesspeople now run online stores with a wider customer base to sell to, which has helped businesses cover wider reach.
3. Helps build a vast network: Being the action or process of interacting with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts, networking has been made easier with the help of social media. Without having to travel as you would most times, you can now network with new people, across various works of life, and with different cultures and beliefs all from the comfort of your mobile device.

Cons:

1. It has created a breach in physical communication: “Social media brings distant people closer and makes closer people distant.” Always wanting to interact with our online community has robbed us of communicating with the people around us. Especially among young people who are almost always on their devices, social media has created a dent in the way people interact. Even when we attempt to interact physically, we tend to use social media expressions or languages, and this is a major challenge as people hardly connect genuinely to one another.

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1. Exposes people to cybersecurity threats: With everyone having an online profile, social media has made impersonation very easy. Someone can just visit someone else’s profile and steal the information to create a fake personality, which can pose a major risk as fraudulent activities that could lead to loss of money, properties, and lives can be done easily without being tracked.
2. Creates a negative effect on our mental and emotional health: According to recent studies, spending excessive time on social media can make one become lonely and open to depression. Real physical interactions and connections are needed to provide the mental and emotional support we may need to become healthy in life. Someone can have hundreds and thousands of online friends but very few real friends which we spend a lesser amount of time, one can easily feel depressed and exposed to mental stress due to lack of real affection and emotional support.

Clearly, social media has had a great positive impact on the world and cannot be discarded. However, there must be a great balance in others to properly use this platform. More time must be spent on real physical interactions and connections as it is very necessary for human survival. Got tips on the pros and cons of social media? Please share in the comment section.