The internet and social media have totally changed the world and how we view it. It is truly remarkable how we can just "google" any piece of information we like or call a family member thousands of miles away with the press of a button. Heck, we don't even press buttons we just tap a touchscreen! Unfortunately, there are many downsides to the internet and social media. Downsides that are slowly but steadily ripping away our social fabric and society.
Now, don't get me wrong I LOVE social media! There is just something about getting a like for that cat video you posted on Facebook, that tweet about your favorite game, or even an up-vote here on steemit! Of course up-votes on steemit equate to money which is why I adore steemit.
But, as much as I like that "good" feeling I get from the likes, I know that it's slowly eating away at my mental health and habits. You see, social media when it was first built, was made to make you the user get "hooked" to keep you coming back for more each day, so these sites can generate more revenue.
It does so by constantly giving you a dopamine hit (aka the likes) that makes your brain go "Holy S*** !, this feels lit. I gotta do that again" and you listen to your brain and repeat. This is very detrimental because it teaches your brain "instant gratification" essentially killing away your desire to do long term work.
Too bad that all the great things in life are long term based. Relationships, investments, knowledge, learning a skill, even building muscles are all things that require time and effort to accomplish and are the key factor to a good life. Depression is also shown to increase in people who are regular social media users, and this is literally just one aspect of the web!
There are many other things like porn addiction something that has skyrocketed since the year 2000, sharing of bizarre and unethical thoughts, and invasion of peoples private life. On the internet, everything becomes digital trash after a period of time like old movies, trends and ideas, and you can most certainly build digital culture of trash, but only trash culture. B movies, B videogames, B philosophy.
At the end of the day, the internet and social media are just tools with positives that outweigh the negatives. It is most certainly too late to fix the damage that has been done to this generation of people, but we can avoid the negatives of the internet with proper awareness raising for future generations to come
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Despite the negatives, and there surely are many of them...social media has connected us in a completely different way, and made the world a smaller place. I can interact with someone in Egypt! I have people following my daughter's medical journey from all over the world...it's amazing!