Nowadays, whoever has a Smartphone definitely uses social media on it. People have become so used to mobile phones that they keep themselves informed through social media from time to time. It is being confirmed by professionals that now a day excessive social media use cause depression in young people and future generations.
However, confirmation of news on social media is also a problem and sometimes it happens that news or a post is shared without verification.
The UN secretary-general said, “The spread of lies and misinformation around the world is only at one touch”. We can all do our part to stop this spread. He said I would advise youngsters to verify them before sharing anything on social media.
Is social media the only reason behind the growing problems in society and depression among the youth? Here are some other questions as well.
What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? What’s your last job before going to bed? What do you do most of the free time you get at any part of the day?
In the Netflix documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’, former Google design atheist Tristan Harris said, “We think Google is just a place to find things, Facebook is just a place to know the condition of friends and see their pictures.”
In fact, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter Instagram, youtube Tiktok, pin trust google and how many social media pellet forms are there. And all of them have competition for consumer time and more attention. The purpose of which is to keep you tied to the screen.
Sandy Paracles, facebook’s former operations manager, said, “Companies like Google and Facebook used to do small experiments on their users. After these experiences, there comes a time when you develop a great way to get the user to do what you want”.
Sandy Paracles said that we are all lab rats for them and they are being tested on us.
The advertising seen on social media is the source of their owners’ money. Social media owners also want that users spend more and more time using applications. For this, they use different tactics to bind the users.
Dangerous for Young People and Future Generations
According to social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, the incidence of anxiety and depression among young people in the United States started increasing between 2011 and 2013.
Talking about self-harm or suicide, he said that the number of girls brought to the hospital by self-harm increased very rapidly after 2013.
The number of older girls brought to the hospital increased by 62 percent, while the number of small girls increased by 189 percent and the same proportion was seen in suicides.
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt said that all these facts point to social media.
On social media, young people compare their lives to others and they join a race in which they may never win, these things lead them to mental stress or depression.
Depression and its disadvantages
Stress management consultants and social psychologists say depression is a serious mental illness. When a person suffers from a problem for a very long time, then a person suffers from depression.
According to experts, depression also spoils a person’s decisions and relationships with friends and family. Human beings isolate themselves and negative thoughts start coming.
Regarding the different effects of depression on people of different ages, experts say that depression has effects according to age and there are treatments for them.
Patients with depression should also undergo psychotherapy and cognitive therapy.
If treatment is not done on time, the victim and his family may also face serious consequences. If there is a depressed patient near you, get them treated in time because depression is such a disease.
Cynthia M. Wong, a former Internet researcher at Human Rights Watch, says that governments and various powers have an impact on our daily lives when they weaponize social media. In Myanmar, the internet means Facebook.
There, when most people buy a mobile, the shopkeeper makes a Facebook stall in it and creates their account in it. Roger McNamee, who invests in Facebook, says that if everyone’s truth is different, then a conclusion can never be reached.
According to Tristan Harris, if I have to manipulate an election, I will find hundreds of people in a Facebook group who believe that the world is flat and I will tell Facebook that I want a thousand such people and I will get them.
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, was asked about Facebook’s involvement in the 2016 election in the United States. In response to this, he said, “It is difficult to answer this question, but there were many things involved in this election other than Facebook.”
