When asked about social media most times, it is seen by people as platforms where people make friends, form relationships, live fake lives, seek attention and bully others in different cases. But social media is much more than that. It is a form of media that describes online information that are created, circulated and used by people who wanted to educate themselves about services, people and personalities, brands and issues (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). It has about 1.96 billion users worldwide and keeps on growing. Some of the popular social media sites known and used are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn but there are also other forms of social media like blogs, forums, company websites, and collaborative websites.
Looking at the outcomes of using social media it has the ability to create connections,
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Studies show that adolescence have poor sleep quality because they are constantly checking on their phones to avoid missing out on incoming messages. This poor sleep quality can be due to anxiety as to what is happening on social media sites. Low self-esteem followed by depression which is a very common health issue can also occur due to upward social comparism when looking at online profiles of others (Woods & Scott, 2016).
Improving our use of Social media
It is clear that social media has both positive and negative impacts depending on how it is used. It provides a place for connection, exposure and growth but at the same time affects lives and health of individuals as well as their reputations.
So the question is how best can we use social media so as to avoid a negative impact? Excessive use of social media can be cut. Though it may be hard but it is key to improving sleep quality, taking away anxiety and also reducing depression and low self-esteem that might occur due to spending a lot of time viewing people’s social