The first social media was used in 1997 sixdregree.com. The extension of society then continued. Now we have several social media with different uses and purposes. Some of the famous social media platforms are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. Instagram is the 2nd largest social media platform. What is the success story behind it? In 2012 when Facebook purchased Instagram for 1-billion-dollar Instagram went through some major changes.
The reason behind purchasing Instagram was, that Mark Zuckerberg, considered Instagram a threat. So rather, than competing with Facebook purchased it. Presently Instagram is available with features such as sharing photos, posting stories, posting reels, adding comments, and live features. It emerged from an entertainment platform to a marketing platform in the present world.
Outlook
The reason behind this topic is, as social media is a new lifestyle for people. It is relevant to know everything about it. We know there are two aspects to everything. On one side it is building businesses and people; on the other side, it is degrading the mental, physical and social life of people. People who actively use social media tend to be more depressed. The competence behavior social media develops in humans is many times unhealthy. When seeing others doing great in their lives, we often think of ourselves as not being good enough and the feeling of missing out persists. Which gives rise to negative thoughts causing poor mental and physical health.
Merits
Connectivity
The most fundamental benefit of social media is connectivity. It helps us to form connectivity with people, communities, and groups worldwide. It has the capacity to connect an unlimited number of people together at a particular time. Developing relationships and communication became easy with social media. Thanks to its connectedness.
Informative
Instagram is a good source of entertainment because of the plenty of content it has. The contents related to almost anything can be found. For example, education, entertainment, food, fashion, art, craft, news, and sports. It also keeps us updated with the latest trends and ongoings of the world it promotes the real meaning of globalization. The plus point is that I provide information with occurs which is easy to grasp and interesting to know.
Business building
The most important and upgraded purpose of Instagram presently is using it for digital marketing. Having a significant number of Instagram likes on your business page can make a way for digital marketing by building networks worldwide. It gives advertisement features, the most important tool for digital marketing. Businesses can feature their advertisements online by attaching a website link. This is a direct door for gaining customers.
Services
Presently there exist business accounts on Instagram for every service. This enables the user to avail of the best services nearby without putting extra effort into research. The user can directly interact with a service provider and can arrange meetings. This is time-saving and effective. You can easily prepare yourself to go for a certain service or not by going through the reviews and ratings. In this way, you can choose the best one for you.
Awareness
Instagram is a great source of spreading awareness. People using Instagram tend to be more aware of the happening in the world. By just scrolling the post, users can gather information about trending topics. The activist and social organizations mostly use their Instagram handle to pass the information on prevailing topics of health, environment, economy, literacy, etc.
Demerits
Deteriorate mental health
This is most prevalent in youth. They are facing severe mental downfall due to the overuse of social media. Problems like insomnia, anxiety, and fatigue are observed in youth which ultimately puts them into depression. The reason behind it is Instagram is addictive. Another reason is the feeling of not being good enough and not being popular is a cause of such problems. These problems sometimes cause people to take severe steps.
Loss of social emotion connection
Due to social media, there is a loss of social emotion because everything we do is online and it is reduced to written information. Be it giving wishes, showing gratitude, or showing condolence. This loss has a personal connection. Some people also do it for formality without having any inner feelings resulting in the loss of genuine feelings. This also gave a loss to the social life of people.
Loss of thoughtfulness
Conversation is limited to texting these days. As a result, people lose the ability to express and understand their emotions. The thoughtfulness in making effort and initiating a conversation is typically lost. Face-to-face conversations are now limited. We tend to talk about context rather than meeting someone personally. This way we must be saving time but at the cost of losing thoughtfulness.
Cyber assaults
The people using social media handles are vulnerable to such illegal attacks. As we put everything about ourselves on social media, it gets easy for people to misuse our identity. The cases of cyber assaults are most common among female users. People assault by sending irrelevant pictures and passing inappropriate comments. Part of this is hacking, hackers can breach your sensitive data for meaningful purposes.
Posting skewed information
We never put our whole life on social media. We always share our good times and not the sad ones. This causes self-misinterpretation because we always post our perfect pictures. In this way, we remain in an imaginative world and do not confront the reality of life which causes serious trouble. Being fake to ourselves is a threat to self-identity.
Conclusion
Social media is used for a diversity of purposes enhancing the lifestyle of people. But on the other hand, it is also deteriorating the personal life of people. From building brands to degrading the well-being of people. Social media has gone far with time. It is obvious that imagining a life without social media is impossible. It has given us immense reasons to use it.
With the conservative approach using social media for causes is aren’t harmful but keeping check of precautions and investing time wisely can keep us away from its threat. Being impetus while using social media is always fruitful.
