Critical Evaluation: The Positive and Negative Impacts of Social Media

This essay provides a comprehensive evaluation of social media, exploring both its benefits and disadvantages as perceived by various authors. It highlights the negative impacts such as mental health issues, academic distraction, and physical ailments like vision problems. Conversely, it acknowledges the positive aspects, including its effectiveness in marketing and knowledge acquisition for students. The essay concludes by advocating for the sustainable use of social media to maximize its benefits while minimizing adverse effects through promoting outdoor activities and a balanced lifestyle, ultimately enhancing social life and reducing the risk of mental and physical disorders.

Running head: EVALUATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Evaluation of social media
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1EVALUATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Introduction
Social media is one of the major trends and phenomenon in the current time with having
majority of global population attached with. However, the major question remains with the use
of social media is whether it is having more benefits or disadvantages. There are number of
instances proved that social media is having number of benefits. On the other hand, number of
negative events also got emerged with the use of social media. In accordance to this, different
authors have given different views regarding the use of social media. Furthermore, it is also
important to gauge the effectiveness of the social media and initiate necessary actions
accordingly (Leftheriostis and Giannakos,pp. 134-142).
This essay will argue about the different opinions regarding the effectiveness of social
media on the basis of different journals and articles. In addition, this essay will also discuss about
the actions to be taken in reducing the negative impacts of social media.
Disadvantages of social media
There are number of disadvantages being identified and stated by number of authors
According to Bolton et al., one of the major issues with the usage of social media is mental
illness of the users. This is due to the reason that using social media acts as an addiction for the
users and it becomes difficult for them to get rid of it in the further time. In addition, the authors
have also stated that content in the social media may also cause mental illness such as depression
and anxiety. In the recent time, vulgar, explicit and graphic contents are being extensively shared
in the social media. As per the authors, these will have adverse impacts on the mindset of the
users especially for the minors. On the other hand, Alwagait, Shahzad and Alim stated that the
adverse impact of social media on the academic performance on the students in Saudi Arabia.

2EVALUATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
This article argued that the students are more getting distracted with the heavy usage of social
media and this is hampering their academic performance.
Apart from these mental illness, there are number of physical disorders can also be
detected from the use of social media. This is due to the reason that according to Panahi, Watson
and Partridge, vision can be affected with the use of social media due to weakness in eyesight.
As per the authors, continuous usage of the social media through mobile or computer screen will
affect the eyesight and will cause vision problem in the long term.
Benefits of social media
Even though, there are number of authors given their opinion against the use of social
media but still number of favorable opinions are also being identified. According to Tiago and
Verissimo, one of the major benefits for the social media can be identified in the marketing
sector. This is due to the reason that social media helps in effectively communicating with the
target customers along with determining their preference pattern. Thus, social is having business
benefits. In the previous section, it is argued that use of social media is having adverse impact on
the students but according to Tess, social media is also helping the students in gaining extensive
knowledge and they are also getting access to connect with different people across the world.
This is in turn enhancing their performance in the higher education.
Al-Rahmi and Othman stated that social media is also having positive impact on the
academic performance of the university students. According to them, social media is helping the
students in gaining the external knowledge apart their academic resources. This is helping them
in having more outside knowledge than before.

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Reduction of social media usage
This can be concluded that social media is having both negative as well as positive
impacts from different perspectives. Thus, it will be more effective if the social media can be
used in more sustainable manner. It is recommended that outdoor activities should be promoted
among the younger generation (Okazaki and Taylor, pp.56-71). This will reduce the over usage
of social media among them, which will in turn reduce the issues such as depression and obesity
in the long term. It is also concluded that reduction in the use of social media will also ensure
that people will be more attentive towards their social life. This will enhance their social life and
the probability of the mental and physical disorders will get lowered considerably. Sustainable
usage of social media is the only way of getting the maximum benefits from it without having ay
adverse impacts.

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Reference
Al-Rahmi, W., and M. Othman. "The impact of social media use on academic performance
among university students: A pilot study." Journal of information systems research and
innovation 4.12 (2013): 1-10.
Alwagait, Esam, Basit Shahzad, and Sophia Alim. "Impact of social media usage on students
academic performance in Saudi Arabia." Computers in Human Behavior 51 (2015): 1092-1097.
Bolton, Ruth N., et al. "Understanding Generation Y and their use of social media: a review and
research agenda." Journal of service management 24.3 (2013): 245-267.
Leftheriotis, Ioannis, and Michail N. Giannakos. "Using social media for work: Losing your time
or improving your work?." Computers in Human Behavior 31 (2014): 134-142.
Okazaki, Shintaro, and Charles R. Taylor. "Social media and international advertising:
theoretical challenges and future directions." International marketing review 30.1 (2013): 56-71.
Panahi, Sirous, Jason Watson, and Helen Partridge. "Social media and physicians: exploring the
benefits and challenges." Health informatics journal 22.2 (2016): 99-112.
Tess, Paul A. "The role of social media in higher education classes (real and virtual)–A literature
review." Computers in Human Behavior 29.5 (2013): A60-A68.
Tiago, Maria Teresa Pinheiro Melo Borges, and José Manuel Cristóvão Veríssimo. "Digital
marketing and social media: Why bother?." Business Horizons 57.6 (2014): 703-708.