8 Dangers of Social Media We're Not Willing to Admit

I recently posed the question: is social media good for your heart and your character? It’s been an issue I’ve been really passionate about lately, because if I’m honest, I’ve felt the effects social media has had on my faith.

I took this discussion to Relevant Magazine. Here is the article I wrote for them:

When I posed a question the other day about possibly leaving social media, I got a response that shocked me. People said it was risky—dangerous even. They told me I shouldn’t leave or change my social media strategy for fear of missing out.

It’s strange how fast we assimilated social media into the very DNA of our relationships. When at one time we questioned how we could live with it, we now question how we could live without it.

To some degree, this is troubling because many of us know the many disadvantages to living our lives on social media, and yet, we’re too afraid to cut the chord. We’ve grown too attached to the reality of social media.

After much discussing, I decided not to leave social media (namely, Facebook). But the whole discussion on the matter led me to truly analyze the pros and cons of social media.

I discovered that not many people even want to look at the disadvantages of social media because they know they can’t live without it. But maybe it’s time to face the dangers we’re unwilling to look at, because that’s the only way we can make our experience online a healthy one.

This list below is not my attempt to convince you away from social media. It’s my attempt to level the playing field and help you realize there are just as many dangers to relying on social media as there are to leaving it.

Here are just a few dangers involved with social media:

1. Validation

We’ve always wanted to be accepted. Social media has just exacerbated this desire in the form of likes and retweets. Seeking validation online is a danger because it has us relinquish our power to affirm ourselves even more. We now look for even more external measurements to our worth.

When we seek validation, we attempt to define who we are online, not have online complement who we are. Let’s cut all the validation at the roots and get back to being our true selves.

2. Comparison

When we see other’s accomplishments, how many of us envy them? How many of us compare instead of connect? Like validation, we’ve always done this with our peers. But with social media’s ability to edit our image, we now do this even more. It’s time for us to stop comparing ourselves to others and place the power back in our own hands to judge our worth.

3. Bitterness

I often get bitter that one person liked another status and not mine, or that one person shared a moment with another friend and not me. This is ultimately a heart problem on my part. But how many of you also grow bitter from what you see on social media? Maybe the best cure is to step back from the platform that only fosters a bitter heart.

4. Caring About the Wrong Things

I used to care more about real, tangible things—like my relationships with others. Now I find that being watered down with cares about a virtual world—how my image looks on social media or how many “likes” my Instagram photo got. Give priority to what happens in the real and visible present, not what occurs in a virtual world.

5. Noise

Before, I used to really take the time to digest content. I would read longer paragraphs online and thoroughly enjoy it. But now, I only read lists online. The clutter and barrage of noise has led me to only consume bullet point information. This way, I could read everything given to me.

The reality is, however, you filter what’s noise from what’s essential, and you only consume the beneficial essential. This unfortunately becomes increasingly difficult with social media sharing everything.

6. Convenient Friendships

We don’t have much risk with our relationships today. It is now hard to call someone on the phone because that involves giving something of ourselves. Instead of risking, it’s easier to glance at someone’s profile to learn about his or her world. Unfortunately, this makes a relationship convenient and easy, when the best foundation for a long lasting relationship is one that’s willing to risk.

7. Wasting Time

Time is valuable, which means we shouldn’t waste it with people, interactions and advertisements that offer no return for our attention. Social media forces us to waste time with these sort of things. It’s better to invest our valuable time in something that gives the world—and us—more value.

8. Isolation

On social media, we are in a world within a world. It’s easy to shut ourselves off from interaction because we believe our interaction online is enough. It’s easy to not see people all day, but rather see them online.

Distance yourself from this tendency to isolate. Allow social media to push you in the world even further, not away from it.

It is just as equal of a danger to stay on social media than it is to leave. What this means is we are free to choose. We are free to pick which set of problems we want. We can decide how we want to improve our online experience. And most of all, we can choose which measures will help us honor God and live more like His Son in this world. The choice is yours.

What are your thoughts? Is social media good for our faith? Talk about it in the comments section below!

Tiiffy

I think the “riskiness” of leaving social media stems from social media being a fantastic distribution channel, making it easier to network and reach people. It’s convenient, easy to use and highly accessible. I can see how it can become an “invaluable resource,” but it’s better left as a tool or a platform, not the core competency of your work nor relationships/personal life.

Ultimately, all 8 dangers can be apparent in life without social media. For example, bitterness can stem from jealousy concerning the possession of a tangible object, and comparison is “keeping up with the Joneses.” The dangers are more prevalent in social media because social media waters down our relationships and interactions to be likes, comments, photos, etc., which are quantifiable or have some sort of visual cue. It’s easy to see how you’re not measuring up to your expectations (e.g. in comparison to someone else or what you wanted to achieve).

I think if you’re insecure when exposed to social media, you’re also insecure when you’re out of social media. Taking it away may dampen the symptoms, but it won’t solve inner issues. I think of social media as a conduit in the sense that it can exemplify negativity or positivity, but it is not the source of either.
- Neal Samudre
  
  Wow, that is excellent insight! You’re right. If you are generally a person who is pretty secure in life, your social media will funnel out that positivity. But if not, it’ll show in how you engage on social media. I feel another post coming on. Thank you for commenting!
Pingback: Overcoming Negative Christian Stigmas (without Proving Them Right) | JesusHacks()
Pingback: 5 Ways to Avoid the Gluttony of Facebook | JesusHacks()
Pingback: 8 Things Christians Need to Do More on Social Media | JesusHacks()
Jane Lawson

I understand your points, but if anything, I feel like social media allows people to interact with each other more. Isolation is possible regardless of social media, which encourages community and has helps millions of people connect with people from all over the world who understand them. Like with everything, there are benefits and negatives with or without social media.

To think something wrong with seeing people online more than offline is ignorant of individual needs; it’s ableist and encourages this one specific mold a person is expected to fit to be seen as someone who isn’t “wasting time”. Also ableist is calling people on the phone.

There is this idea that anyone who has issues with this mold they never fit into to begin with is the “problem” of the world today, as if it’s too much trouble for people to have to accommodate them. People are fine when someone needs glasses, but the moment someone is Deaf or nonverbal or hasn’t the innate ability of a neurotypical person to be/act like society’s view of a human being is when we forget our own humanity and flaws.

As Tiiffy’s already mentioned, these “dangers” of social media exist without social media. From my perspective, none of these dangers of social media exist in worst ways than they do without it. Much of them are not dangers to begin with, because I run in communities reliant on social media and the internet to function—because I’m autistic and mysophobic and introverted. I understand social and have run social communities of my own. At the end of the day, the worst of the “dangers” social media brings out of a person are parts of the person that have always been there, but have been suppressed and/or unknown.

There are so many people out there with different bodies and minds and needs, and lists like these bring harm to those kinds of people…and to people like me.