The teens team: series 06// social media and you

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There are lots of social apps like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, WeChat etc.
Having an active account with them could really be fun and exciting experience. Especially when reaching out to friends at distant locations or posting pictures and videos of interesting places.

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Without the social media, as a youth, you may feel gaged, unexposed to the outside world and probably missing out.
You can imagine where your classmates are singing songs and talking about international artiste in your presence, even if you don't say it, deep down no matter how you pretend, you know you have been lost in some Jurassic world.

Just like most other stuff, social media has its merit and demerits in the lives of humans. And in this publication, we'll consider some ways social media negatively affects our lives.

For the purpose of clearity, let's define more of social media is;

As the name imply, - it is a medium of socializing with people; through texting, mailing, voucenotes, group chats etc. More examples include, YouTube, telegram, discord even our dear steemit etc.

Before talking about the demerits of social media, let's talk merit first.

Pros

1. It is a medium of socializing; sometimes you may know acquaintance you rarely talk to offline, but sometimes, connecting with them online makes you more comfortable and get to talk and know them well.

2. It helps you reach friends and family members no matter the location, social media is everywhere.

3. It's a window that helps you see the world around you even from your innermost room.

4. Vital information now are no longer on bill boards, they are online and also passes through social media for others to see.

5. Funny clips and movies are pertaining and enlightening, people use it as an object for relaxation especially after tired days and times

6. Money; social is being leveraged by many to make money, you could consider the famous Andrew tate and many others. It could be used to promote and advertise your business or brand.

7. Influence: If you are not a politician, there's no better and faster way to build influence than on the social media. People with more followers have more listening ears.

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Yo! We get to the demerit now: there are lots of them but, we'll mention those we can.

Cons

📌 Addiction: many children and teens now a days being exposed to social media have gotten addicted to it that they feel incomplete without social media in a day. I remember seeing someone ask another how he copes without coming online some days.

📌 Bad exposure: What is now featured on the internet is ungodly, pornography is no longer a hidden secret. Social media🤦‍♀️
It could even lead to wrong exposure to negative people, strangers who can't add value in your life.
Some others may be tracking your lifestyle from your post or manner of speaking.
There have been incidents of bullying too and other anti social vices

📌 Influence: There are lots of influence in the online space. Peer group influence which we treated in our last series, sophisticated lifestyle influence where everyone wants to do all they can to look sassy and got like others, others are influenced to keep unrealistic goals and expectations. Some even get depressed when they can't live the extravagant lifestyle they see their mates on social media.
It has changed the mentality of people, set a lifestyle and pattern, promoting it's own idea and forcing it on the lives of users.

📌 Fraud: scammers are devising every means, tooth and nail to drain other people and rob them of what they have especially when they post so much about themselves attracts thieves to them, offline and online too

📌 Faking: social media is packaging to some people, it's a way of promoting fake life, because no one wants to be left out. They always want to fit in and because of that, many have fallen into debts and criminal offenses. Social Media is now used as a yardstick for comparison of a real life.

📌 Social media affects our relationships e.g when we turn on a particular social medium, sees lots of messages. You lose empathy while replying them, you give half-hearted replies to that dear friend of yours because all you want to do is clear your inbox.
It also gets annoying when you are talking with someone who is busy fiddling on the phone, even sending voice notes to another person.
More than that, you'll lose interest in much other stuff, could be family matters, your favorite games and other activities

📌 Social media is a thief: Yes it obviously is, what does it steal? Your time. It's easier to say" I'm not addicted Steven when you are. It takes away your time with your family and friends, your personal time, eats away quality relationships.

📌 Misjudgements: Social Media sometimes do not convey the real meaning and intentions of what people say. You may happen to read a joking message seriously. Sometimes the cruise on your status might be taken seriously by someone who had genuine interest in you.

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Source

Be social media smart

• You could track the number of hours you use to avoid over stating on social media. Procrastinate social media for other things not procrastinating other things for it.

• Be mindful of your post, they may be someone feeling oppressed, offended or prolly misjudging you.

• Avoid empty late night chats as much as you could. You are depriving yourself of rest and time for other important things

• Try as much as possible, within your reach to make social media your slave not your master. Wield it in a way it can be profitable; whether it's through learning skills, seeing value filled videos and write-ups getting legit information, advertising etc.

• Be mindful of what you see on social media, mute some people whose post are detrimental to you, 👩‍🦲 avoid post that makes you feel depressed of unproductive or not living the life.

• It might be a bit normal to receive direct messages from strangers, you could choose to limit your exposure to strangers to people you really know and are comfortable with.

• Do not easily give out information about yourself especially people you barely know. You might be endangering yourself.

• To avoid being misjudged, emojis might helping explaining your mood. If you are joking use a laughing emoji, use kind tones and expressions when sending in your voice notes.

• Do not hesitate to report fraudulent or negative behaviours like harassments on social media.

• Your friends want to love and enjoy you, keep down the phone and look at them, don't let social media steal your empathy, look behind the smiling emojis to the real needs of your friends, not just clearing the clutter.

In effect, make this thief(social media) your slave not your master. Don't let it lower your guards and set standards for you. Make it the other way round. Make good use of it not excessive use of it. More to this; there are other ways we could exhibit how social media smart we are. How about we tell about that in the next series?
Meet you there.
Love to read our previous series? Right here 👇

Introduction

• Series 01
• series 02
• series 03
• series 04
• Series 05
  Here's my steemit introduction post