Social Media Is Destroying Our Society, and It’s Our Fault
“I find myself doom scrolling, checking social media as soon as I wake up, posting every little thing on my story, needing entertainment for each meal, and so on. If you can think of a toxic social media habit, I probably do it: which is why I’m qualified to speak on how Social Media Is Destroying Our Society And Why It’s Our Fault.”
Growing up, I never saw social media as a problem. I was given my first phone when I was about 10 and since then I’ve never had any adult supervision, or really thought I needed any. I just always thought there wasn’t anything you could stop a person from seeing, just when they see it. Anyway, my social media journey didn't start particularly negatively — as I was frequenting Youtube, Roblox, pirated versions of Minecraft, and any other childhood mobile games you can think of.
As time went on, I gradually learned about Musically (now TikTok), Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter (now X), Discord, and more through peers and other big influences on Youtube, and I now use those apps religiously. I find myself doom scrolling, checking social media as soon as I wake up, posting every little thing on my story, needing entertainment for each meal, and so on. If you can think of a toxic social media habit, I probably do it: which is why I’m qualified to speak on how Social Media Is Destroying Our Society And Why It’s Our Fault.
For many, the world may revolve around the things we see on Tiktok, Twitter, and Instagram; and we spend so much time a day focused on our digital social lives rather than our physical social lives, like being chronically online — which most of you think you’re not. Unfortunately, a side effect of this may consist of an influx of unhealthy relationships: parasocialism, impossibly high (or low) standards, trust issues, and worse.
Social media is an incubator for toxic mindsets and habits, trends like “pointing out ick’s,” a trend where women, or sometimes men, point out things they find unattractive of the other gender — and sometimes these things include natural habits, insecurities, or harmless personality traits. Or, there’s “I hate my girlfriend,” a trend that I first saw as a thread on Twitter that evolved into a TikTok trend of men making ragebait jokes about hating their girlfriends and treating them very poorly through cheating, neglect, and resentment. And then there’s “The Cheating Trend,” a nameless trend that has many describing how they’ve gone about cheating on their significant others in the past, and while many of these stories are probably fabricated, they do promote cheating and present methods on how to do so. These are just a few.
Personally I’ve seen these trends have a serious effect on people's relationships, especially younger generations. As someone who's always been helping at youth centers and after school programs, as well as attending, I can say from experience that a lot of children recreate what they see on social media, and even the children who don’t use social media will end up succumbing to peer pressure. “The Ick” may sound like a silly term, which it is, but a lot of teen and pre-teen girls used it to insult others, especially those of the opposite gender. They utilized the term to reject guys and belittle them. The “I hate my girlfriend” trend began with a thread on Twitter stating things like “That phase where you slowly start hating your girlfriend is crazy,” and “When you keep messing up on purpose so that she can break up with you and she keeps forgiving you,” and “You’ll be having a bad day and when she hugs you it becomes even worse.” This may push narratives that can negatively impact younger men by creating the idea that resenting your girlfriend is normal.
For all of the Python readers that use TikTok, you know what it means to be delusional — you probably are. For those who don’t know, being delusional is adamantly assuming something that can’t possibly be true. Unfortunately, we are living in the time period where being delusional has now been romanticized by TikTok. I will always be the first to say, “Yes, I do find it funny.” But at some point we do need to address the elephant in the room: joking about mental health makes light of it which is a bit too close to dismissing them, in my opinion.
With the way that social media keeps us so easily connected, it can be both a good and a bad thing. We may be able to scroll TikTok and get instant dopamine, but what if the content is morbid? Or even just vulgar? You would not know until you’ve watched the video. Many will try to argue that it’s TikToks fault, or the fault of the user, but not all criminals can be caught and not all the negative content can be removed. Then it comes down to content that romanticizes or jokes about mental health issues, whether it's considered “positive” or negative, it's harmful. But TikTok can't take it down unless it's inappropriate in any way.
Social media has become a breeding ground for societally unacceptable behaviors. This has and is setting up the past, current, and future generations for relationship issues and long term psychological damage, especially in youth development. Social media may create unrealistic standards for beauty, relationships, finances, and sometimes perpetuating stereotypes — such as when, at a point in time, if you had searched “ghetto makeup” in the TikTok search bar you would only see black women doing makeup tutorials with minimal makeup products (like using concealer and no foundation), although this was already a technique used in a style of makeup called “clean girl makeup.”
Apps like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Facebook are often used to share personal information, browse profiles (whether strangers or friends), and consume trends. Many have developed insecurities, dysmorphia, and mental illnesses through the over consumption of social media, which is very common today, because of this digital age we live in. These difficulties, often caused by social media and other related problems, begin to fester and grow, eventually dictating negative behaviors in a person's life. Some may be aware, but most are not.
The issue focuses mainly on the younger generations, but really it affects us all. Social media can create a lot of conflict, both internally and externally. This is a sign to take a break from your socials. Everything’s going to be okay. My personal method that I swear by is to every once in a while delete everything and go off the grid for a bit. Go outside, touch grass, and stop letting the brain rot get to you.