Social media allows billions of people around the world to connect and although it may seem harmless on the surface, the effects these platforms have internally and on society outweighs all the benefits.

Social media platforms have more than tripled their userbases from 970 million users in 2010 to 3.9 billion in 2021, according to an April 26, Backlinko post. Backlinko is a website for search engine optimization training and link-building strategies. 

With the global average of two and a half hours spent on social media per day, a person will spend around six long years of their life browsing content if current trends continue. 

Instead of scrolling through a fake reality, people could be using that time exercising, socializing or advancing their education.

Social media consumes large amounts of students’ time and leads to lower grades for those who actively scroll through platforms compared to those who don’t use social media as often. 

In a 2020 January ResearchGate study based in India measured how social media affected Information Technology (IT) employees’ well-being and work productivity, where researchers found “consequences of social media overuse” at the workplace.

Those who heavily used social media were easily distracted from work, had a tendency to seek approvals and not meet deadlines, compromised their work’s quality, and experienced sleep deprivation, back pain and eye strain, according to the study. 

The same can be said for students who spend more time on social media than they do studying or completing their assignments.

But that’s not the only harmful aspect of social media, as a majority of Americans receive their news from social media apps instead of printed newspapers, according to a Dec. 10, 2018 Pew Research study.

This can lead to many people finding themselves in news echo chambers, according to a Jan. 12 ABC News article. News echo chambers are defined as an experience in which social media users find themselves viewing the same perspectives and opinions repeatedly, according to the same ABC News article. 

Echo chambers within media platforms breed extremists with unconventional views and some have even been linked to be the cause of the incited attack on the U.S. Capitol, which occurred on Jan. 6. 

If social media platforms continue to allow echo chambers and other forms of violence and hatred to exist in their algorithms, more unrest and dangerous views will permeate in the future.

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, said it best when he said he believes social media should be regulated because it affects the public good and social media allows fake news to spread faster than real news.

“I think there should be regulations on social media to the degree that it negatively affects the public good,” Musk said in an April 11, 2018, CBS interview. “You can’t have more clicks on fake news than real news. That’s allowing public deception to go unchecked.”

Social media doesn’t just breed political extremists, it also creates unrealistic body standards for women. This leads to increased depression in women, suicidal tendencies and pre-teen plastic surgeries.

According to a November 2019 study from Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 13-year-old girls who spent at least two-to-three hours per day on social media were at a higher clinical risk for suicide when they increased their usage.

Filters and face-editing apps, including FaceTune, are worsening the issue as many people find themselves using such programs to change their body image into something unrealistic. According to a Headversity blog post, this can lead to “Snapchat dysmorphia,” a term coined by cosmetic surgeons that can lead young adults to pay for plastic surgery to change their faces to fit conventional beauty standards, which are applied in face-altering filters. If social media affects your mental health or the way you view your own body, the best course of action might be to delete social media altogether.“Your worth is not measured in likes, comments, notes or followers; but in your ability to love, keep comments to yourself, take note and lead,” according to Quora, a social platform to ask questions, user Shovan-Chowdhury.