Why I think the pros of social media outweigh the cons

A lot of you must have thought I was completely crazy when reading the title of this blog post. For a while now, the harmful effects of social media have been well known, and I agree with all of the harmful effects that are commonly talked about. However, I do think that there are a lot of advantages of social media, and I am going to go as far as saying that these pros outweigh the cons in my opinion. I talk about 4 reasons why I think the pros outweigh the cons, which I hope gives you a different perspective of social media. 

Social media allows you to connect with others easily

As a society, we generally love interacting with others, and social media allows you to do this easily. For the vast majority of my friends, I keep in touch with them via Whatsapp or Instagram, and this allows me to maintain my friendships even if I don’t see some of them regularly. In this pandemic, face to face meetups with friends and family have been far and few between for many of us. Therefore, social media has been a life saver in that respect in that it has allowed us to still stay connected to the ones we love, even if it is not the same as meeting them face to face. This for me is a good reason why we need social media, and why social media should be here to stay.

Social media is a good way to raise awareness about important topics

There are so many issues in this world today that we need to raise awareness about, the BLM movement being one of many. One wonderful aspect of social media is that it allows people to have a voice to raise awareness of topics they are passionate about. You have the potential to reach a large audience with the topics you talk about, which can do wonders not only for you but for others as well. My blogs are on important topics, and the social media platforms I use has given me a chance to share these blogs, and help others. One recent example of when social media did a great job in raising awareness of an important issue was when the George Floyd incident occurred. It was great to see how social media was a massive driver in promoting the BLM movement when the George Floyd incident occurred, and I guarantee you that the BLM movement wouldn’t have got as much encouragement and support without social media. In the long run, social media is really the best way to raise awareness of important topics which can help drive positive change.

Social media is so flexible – you can use it how you want it

I think this is a point that so many people underestimate. With social media, there is no strict rules in how you use it, and if you can manage your social media usage then you can ensure that you use it in a way that you find helps you the most or makes you the most happy. It was when I got Instagram in November where I really began to see the flexibility of social media. I use Instagram as a way to share my blogs and positive quotes, as I feel that using it this way makes me happy. However, some people I follow use Instagram to post pictures of good moments, others use it to share their wellbeing journeys, and there are lots of other reasons as well. This clearly shows that how you use social media is completely flexible and up to you, you are in charge of using it in a way that it best for you.

The problem is not solely social media, we also use it badly

This is probably the most important point that I mention in this blog post, and one that links nicely to the third point. There are a lot of negative impacts of social media, and I do agree that individual social media platforms are responsible for some of this. However, we also have a level of responsibility when it comes to using social media in a positive and productive way, and we only have ourselves to blame if we use it badly. If social media is harming our wellbeing then we have to take ownership in finding a solution, rather than blaming social media. For example, one negative part of social media is the problem of the comparison trap and comparing your lives to others. Rather than blaming social media for this, part of the problem is that we ourselves fall into the trap of thinking that what people post on social media is representative of their real life, which is self-inflicted and our fault to an extent. The message I want you to take away from this is that instead of purely blaming social media for being harmful, take a level of responsibility for the way you use it, and think about if there are any ways that you could use social media in a better way than what you currently are doing. Everything I say in this paragraph however is easier said than done. Despite this, I think this paragraph a strong point that suggests that the pros of social media outweigh the cons, as it implies that with a level of ownership of our social media usage, we can use it as something that really boosts our mental health and wellbeing.

Does anyone have anything to add to this?