Disadvantages of social media

Addiction and alienation

As social media becomes an increasingly global phenomenon, it gets more ingrained into daily life. This can have serious negative effects on a social, physical, or psychological level.

Social media features a wide variety of activities towards which people might develop addiction by frequently engaging in them and devoting a considerable amount of time for these activities at the expense of other aspects of life. A typical American uses three social media platforms. In 2018, 74% of adult Facebook users in the United States said they visit the site daily, with around 51% of them saying they do so several times a day. Furthermore, 40% of all social media users in the United States said they would find it hard to give up social media, with 14% of them stating that it would be very hard for them to do this.

Once addicted to social media, users tend to spend more and more time browsing and socialising on social network sites, and often feel unable to stop. They also tend to feel unpleasant feelings when offline. This can affect the user’s productivity and focus in school or the workplace, which in turn can lead to negative consequences. Furthermore, some social media addicts have developed insomnia and exhibit symptoms of anxiety. However, social networking addiction is not officially recognised as a medical disorder.

Analysis indicates that highly outgoing people are more inclined to develop addictive tendencies and to spend time using social networking sites. This could be explained by the fact that using social media satisfies their need to socialise. However, social media addiction als...