Life without social media better or bitter?
Life without social media better or bitter, I really don’t want to picture what a life without social media will be like!! No more amazing filters from Snapchat, all my Pinterest board, tweets, likes and followers gone? My hard earned followers on Instagram no longer in existence?!
The mere thought of this is completely frightening, social media has connected us to so much possibility. It has given us a foresight on what to expect when we visit a new place.
Some many people have not been to the Eiffel Tower but they know what it looks like, the country it is found in and many other notable facts about the tower.
Quick question?
Will YouTube also be deleted doing this process, you can’t take YouTube away, where will we learn all those amazing new DIY for clothes, fashion hacks, content marketing tips, new recipes and comedy?
A world with social media will leave so many people jobless, uninformed and narrow-minded. The versatility of social media makes it a global platform/village where lots of people can meet virtually in order to provide solutions to certain problems.
Social media has lots of benefits that needs to be harness, however, it also comes with lots of negative effects that are quite detrimental to the health either physically or mentally.
The influence social media has on the fashion and fitness industry is huge, it paints the picture perfect with the right body (I.e perfect curves, straight nose, fuller lips,) matched with the right cloth, shoe and bag.
Perfection is preached as the new standard for beauty or acceptance in the world, social media has led to mental illness including anxiety and depression.
Survey conducted on this topic
Ages involved in this survey (13 -40)
This topic rose a lot of arguments between my colleagues, friend and families and for this reason, research was conducted in order to involve the general public in this discussion.
A particular comment was outstanding ;
“Social media is part of our lives, in my schedule for the day social media is on my to-do list. I communicate with my clients, engage in business transactions, learn new things from top ranking businesses and engage in free and paid advertisements for my products and services.”
From the survey conducted it was evident that 95.5% of 1000 individuals that took the survey did not want to imagine a life without social media. Most were shocked that someone will even think of something like that.
The remaining 4.5% complained greatly about the negative impact of social media on the upcoming youths, they were totally in support of the eradication of these platforms.
This group also complained about cyberbullying and explicit content that can negatively affect the mind of upcoming youths. They decided that social media can be replaced as it has so much negative on the upcoming population of the world.
8 Positive benefits of social media
The positive impact of social media is present all around us, we feel its effects in our schools, offices, businesses, connection with people and our interaction with the global community.
Life without social media would be a life without all these benefits.
- A larger audience
Have you ever check the insights on Facebook and Instagram that shows you how many people have seen your posts. The reach is massive, once I made a post on Facebook and within a day the post has reached over 12,000 people.
Can you meet 12,000 by yourself in a day? If you can that great! You deserve to be placed in the Guinness world record breakers book. Social media has bridged this gap by creating platforms where a large number of people can be reached within hours.
There are certain functions on social media that helps businesses decide on the age bracket of people they want to reach as well as the locality.
This outstanding benefit of social media as gave lots of small scale businesses international recognition, a lot of talents have benefited from the large scale of audience that social media has to offer.
Bottom line: A world without social media would strongly affect businesses especially the small scale business. Most start-up businesses do not have the monetary capability to pay radio or television stations in order to advertise their goods or services through their products.
- An Excellent customer relationship
Social media has created an avenue for business owners to connect with their customers on a very close level. A customer can easily lay a complaint, give feedback, or order a product by asking a question on the social media handle of the business.
Networking has never been this easy, there’s a popular saying “the customer is king” this is truth for any surviving business. A business cannot survive without customers, you offer your services and sell your goods to people in need of it (customer/clients).
If no purchase is made you end up making no profits. How long can a business last without profit?
Social media platform not only prioritizes the interest of the customer but they also created a niche where a customer and business owner can have a healthy business relationship.
Long before the introduction of social media, the relationship between a client and a service provider was very low, however, the arrival of social media has completely changed the situation.
Bottom line: Say goodbye to an excellent customer and business owner relationship in a world without social media. There will no longer be an avenue for you to get feedbacks from your customers.
- Free and paid advertisements services
Social media has paved a way for businesses to advertise their products and services without needing to pay any fee. In Facebook, you can create an organic content post it on your page then share it with several groups and platforms.
This helps to boosts sales, productivity and provides an opportunity for businesses to connect with their target audience.
Paid advertisements are another effective way to boost recognition for business. Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms have affordable subscription plans that enable businesses to reach a larger audience.
Apart from the subscription plans set by social media platforms, businesses can contact social media influencers and pay them to use their platform to advertise their goods and services.
Bottom line: Social media doesn’t discriminate, once you pay the subscription you can afford it immediately advertise your business for the chosen period of time.
- Sustains connectivity in relationships
Imagine what life without social media would have been like during the Coronavirus lockdown period. There would have been no way to see your loved ones, run your business, maintain customer relationships or stay informed about the recent trends.
The social media platform are equipped with videos, photos, explore page (Instagram), voice and video call (WhatsApp). These systems put in place by the creators of these platforms has helped to improve connectivity.
People can connect with their family members friends and business colleagues through social media; Someone in London can easily connect on skype and WhatsApp to video call their family in Nigeria.
Social media has solved the issue of high charges when calling an international number, business can also stay connected with their staffs and clients even in a lockdown situation.
Bottom line: a world without social media would lead to a complete halt of businesses and communication with friends and family. Thanks to social media, the coronavirus period was eventful, effective and less horrifying.
- Free to join, affordable to use
Social media platform is completely free to join, all you need is a laptop, a phone, desktop and any electronic gadgets that can connect to the internet and a data subscription plan.
- You can create a viral content
A lot of people have created viral content from the comfort of their homes. This viral content has brought a lot of hidden and undiscovered talents to the limelight.
E.g. Ellen show hosts kids all over the world with viral content, through social media lots of talented people get to receive greater connections.
- Create a sense of community
Humans are social beings, they long for acceptance and the feeling of belonging. Social media helps people connect to groups and pages that they love, there are so many pages filled with individuals of like talents and crafts.
By joining or following these pages you gain access to new ideas, recent technologies and a community that is knowledgeable about your talent, skills and creativity.
- A great way to build your brand
Social media is also a great way to introduce your brand to the world, you can easily do a brand unveiling online and gain global attention.
To build a strong brand you need to gain the trust of your customers, establish a strong customer relationship, ensure that your services are authentic, receive feedback and work on any negative complaint you receive.
Negative effects of social media
- Cyber bullying
The amount of hateful comments on social media is really depressing to read, some people known as “internet troll” derive so much pleasure in hurting people with harsh and demeaning words.
Body shaming people, bruising their self-esteem and going to extreme lengths in order to make people feel bad about themselves is the trend on so many social media platforms especially Twitter.
On Twitter, someone can start a trend with the #hashtag and within seconds lots of people have lot of things to say about the situation. Nobody cares about the person they are thrashing online, they just want to hurt you so bad with words till you run away and hide.
- FOMO (fear of missing out)
Nobody want to be left out or termed a loner. We all want to feel like we can belong to a particular group, like we are having fun, enjoying our lives and spending money on what we love.
However while we are constantly measuring our lives with most “made believe stories,” on Instagram, it is important that we remember that most stories on Instagram are picture perfect.
People constantly want to feel good about themselves, they also want people to recognize this and praise them for it, so most times they go great length to ensure that their social media life is top notch.
Comparing your life with the projected pictures on social media platforms is not the right thing to do, if you feel like you are missing out on something then learn something new, change your wardrobe, get an exercise routine, meet new people and hang out with friends and families. This should help with the feeling that you are losing out.
The feeling of missing out can also lead to depression and anxiety. When you scroll through your social media page and you see some posts on people you know having fun without you. You tend to shift into a process known as overthinking which causes stress, depression and anxiety.
Other negative effects of social media platforms
- It fuels insecurity
- It ignites anxiety and depression
- It makes a person to detached from human connection.
- It breeds isolation and loneliness.
Conclusion
life without social media better or bitter? Life without social media platform would be boring, stressful and completely hard to live with, social media influences so many areas of our daily activities.
The negative aspect of social media can be curb but it would take a really long while for the positive benefits to be replaced.