All about social networks. Impact on a person. Harm and dependence on social networks for dating and communication
“I decided to look into Odnoklassniki for a couple of minutes, an hour and a half passed” - this is one of the most quoted statements dedicated to social networks. Indeed, it seems that I just opened the page, looked at what was new with my friends, uploaded a couple of photos, changed the status, talked with a childhood friend, “liked” several new videos, and now the second hour of being on the site is coming to an end.But, fortunately, everything is not as sad as it might seem at first glance, and in this situation you can also find a lot of positive aspects.
So, what are the pros and cons of visiting? social networks? And in order to make it more convenient to calculate the final result, we number each item separately.
Let's start with the positive aspects of social networks
1. Search speed. On social networks you can easily find the right person (if he is registered there, of course), information of interest regarding any companies (Many companies create groups of the same name on social networks), and also simply find like-minded people. Moreover, this can be done simply by specifying several specific criteria. For example, we indicate: First name, last name, place of residence, age to search for a specific person, or write in the search bar “Cooking desserts”, “Paper crafts”, “Sports cars”, etc. - to meet and communicate with like-minded people in groups .2. Ease of communication and information exchange. Of course, each of us has a mobile phone and we can exchange information via SMS and mms messages. But this takes a considerable amount of money. It is much more convenient, faster and, importantly, more profitable, to send data on social networks.
3. You can create a circle of interests. That is, subscribe to news from interesting communities and groups, make certain purchases (Groups selling any goods are now very developed) and even find a job.
4. Receive reminders on time about holidays, be it City Day, a school friend’s anniversary, or your neighbor’s name day. And after receiving a reminder, you can immediately send a beautiful sticker on a photo or a greeting card.
Now let's look at the negative aspects of social networks
1. Spending a lot of time. But you can spend it with much greater benefit, meet with friends, cook a delicious dinner, or engage in self-education.2. Detachment from the real world. On social networks we position ourselves somewhat differently than in life. And as a result, there is a risk of becoming so accustomed to the created virtual image that, so to speak, it is not always possible to return to earth on time.
3. Personality degradation. If you pay attention to the speech of overly active users of social networks, you will notice the meaninglessness of most of their conversations and the presence in them of words that are incomprehensible to ordinary people, such as “like”, “use”, “lol”, etc.
4. Social networks are a field of activity for scammers and ill-wishers. Unfortunately, not many people think that posting the most detailed information about your life (address, phone number, place of work) can ultimately turn against you. For example, on a social network you share the joy of buying a new laptop or a fur coat, and a week later you write that you are going on vacation with the whole family, like “Don’t lose me, I’m vacationing in Turkey.” And as a result, when you return from a trip, you may not find a fur coat, a laptop, or other valuables.
Perhaps we’ll end the comparison at this point, thereby leveling out all the pros and cons of visiting social networks.
And based on what was written above, we can draw an unambiguous conclusion - Social networks do not cause harm if you use them in moderation, devoting to them, ideally, no more than 1 hour a day.
So we considered the issue
The benefits and harms of social networks
Currently, social networks have become an integral part of the lives of a huge number of people. And some regular users develop a certain dependence on such time spent. A considerable part of all registered accounts belong to children aged 5 years and older. Unfortunately, not all parents consider such an important factor as monitoring the time their child spends on the Internet, including on social networks. But the child’s psyche is much more flexible than an adult’s, and the harm caused by constant visiting of social networks can be quite great for a child.
So what danger can lie in wait for a child on social networks?
Of course, that's already regular presence in front of the monitor within a few hours cannot have a good effect on the well-being and health of the child. Firstly, this is, and secondly, due to incorrect position, problems may arise. problems with posture and spine, and thirdly, minimizing physical activity leads to a general weakening of the body, as a result of which immunity suffers, and, as a result, all sorts of viruses and diseases begin to stick to the child. But can an adequate and reasonable parent who loves his child allow this? Of course, many mothers and fathers find it convenient to free up their time in this way by putting their child at the computer and keeping him busy with some kind of game (And often this activity is just online games on VKontakte).
Do not forget that, in addition to ordinary people who spend time on social networks in order to chat with school friends, watch interesting pictures or videos and play games, there are also those who hide their real identity by introducing themselves with fictitious names and providing information deliberately false information. But among such users there may be maniacs and perverts. They can introduce themselves as childhood friends of the child's parents, neighbors, parents of classmates and make an appointment, promising to give a gift for his parents, warning that they do not need to know about it, since it is a surprise. And this is not the only example of luring children into the clutches of criminals.
The next danger is the child’s detachment from the real world. After all, communicating with peers on a social network is much easier. And a child can acquire live communication skills only in real life. And if he spends more time talking through Internet messages, then in the very near future he may have problems communicating with classmates and friends in the yard.
Also, one of the consequences of constantly being on social networks is a decrease in concentration. In other words, it becomes difficult for a child to focus his gaze on one object (for example, reading a book), since in a social network he constantly has to transfer his attention from one object to another.
Dear parents, in order to avoid unpleasant and sometimes very sad consequences, try to limit your child’s presence at the computer as much as possible, and also carefully monitor his communication on the Internet. in social networks. Take the time to have a preventative conversation, explaining who you can carry on a conversation with and who you shouldn’t. And then your child will not get into trouble and harm his health.
So, we have shown what exists
The harmful effects of social networks on the life and psyche of a child
The influence of social networks Odnoklassniki, VKontakte on a person’s real life
Most of the world's population spends more than one hour every day in in social networks. And many even transfer their entire lives into virtual space, sometimes forgetting about real time altogether.
Every year, a considerable number of people move more and more away from live communication, walks in the fresh air, picnics, etc. in favor of spending time on social networks.
Of course, living in the virtual world is much easier, since it becomes possible to think about every word before writing it, thanks to which many conflicts can be avoided. In life, we sometimes speak without thinking, which often leads to unpleasant consequences.
Nowadays, we congratulate friends more and more often via the Internet, stick stickers on their photos in Odnoklassniki, post cards on the VKontakte wall, or simply add congratulatory comments to photos. Although it really wouldn't hurt to call in person.
Games on social networks also began to take up a lot of time. It is rare to meet a person who has never participated in them. Some people plant and water the garden, some fight zombies or raise pets, and some solve logic puzzles and riddles. And this entire gaming audience is not limited to certain age limits. Both children and adults are passionate about this.
Unfortunately, there are often cases when communication and games on social networks have the most negative impact on real life. Many people lose their jobs because they waste their working time on online entertainment. Family breakdowns are also common. There can be absolutely many reasons for this. Starting with banal acquaintances, which lead to far from harmless meetings, and ending with excessive enthusiasm for the above-mentioned games and applications to the detriment of time that should be devoted to your children and significant other. And how many scandals flare up because of the reading of the correspondence of one of the spouses.
Again, let's return to the problem of real communication. After all, when we get used to writing text on a social network, we lose our emotions. As a result, speech becomes much less developed. After conducting a little research in this area and talking with regular visitors to the virtual space, we can conclude that the speech of these people is replete with words like: “Oki” and “Smacks.” And communication with them does not carry any semantic load. As a rule, on a social network, users express their thoughts and emotions through statuses, that is, certain phrases several words long. Agree, but in real life it is practically impossible to express your opinion in this way.
Excessive enthusiasm for communicating on social networks can lead to the manifestation in a person’s mind of an illusory world in which he is the smartest, most beautiful and quick-witted. And this fact does not give a person a chance for realization in real life. It turns out that in the virtual world he is a hero, but in reality he has nothing.
These consequences are especially fraught for the not fully formed child and youth psyche. Since, preferring virtual communication, they excessively protect themselves from the realities of life and, as a result, can get problems in contact with classmates and teachers.
Of course, it will definitely protect itself from the world of Internet hobbies and social networks very difficult, but still limiting their influence on real life will not be superfluous.
So we have briefly shown
The influence of social networks Odnoklassn, VKontakte on a person’s real life
We see that the Internet and social networks have made people dependent on social networks. Man, instead of real life, live communication, replaced it with virtual communication. The Internet and social networks are necessary, they have become part of our lives. But nothing should have the will of a person, his purpose. You need to understand that a person was born not for social networks, but for learning to love other living beings on earth. And this time is short!
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Every year, a lot of people move more and more away from live communication, walks in the fresh air, picnics, etc. in favor of spending time on social networks.
Social network(from the English social networking service) - a platform, online service or website designed to build, reflect and organize social relationships, visualized by social graphs. The characteristic features of the social network are:
Additionally, there may be the ability to manage content within your profile, create user groups with different membership modes, web syndication capabilities, use applications, and much more.
History of origin
With the development of Web 2.0 technologies, social networks have acquired a tangible basis in the form of portals and web services. So, having found a complete stranger on one of these sites, you can see the chain of intermediate acquaintances through which you are connected with him.
Social networks began their victorious march across the Internet in 1995 with the American portal Classmates.com (“Odnoklassniki” is its Russian counterpart). The project turned out to be very successful, which in the next few years provoked the emergence of dozens of similar services. But the official beginning of the social networking boom is considered to be 2003-2004, when LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook were launched. The fashion for social networks came to Russia two years later - in 2006, with the advent of Odnoklassniki and VKontakte.
And if LinkedIn was created for the purpose of establishing/maintaining business contacts, then the owners of MySpace and Facebook relied primarily on satisfying the human need for self-expression. Indeed, in accordance with Maslow’s pyramid, self-expression is the highest human need, even ahead of recognition and communication. Social networks have become a kind of Internet haven where everyone can find the technical and social basis for creating their virtual “I”. At the same time, each user received the opportunity not only to communicate and create, but also to share the fruits of their creativity with a multi-million audience of one or another social network.
Man on social networks
The influence of social networks on people’s lives is enormous, many do not even fully realize the scale of this phenomenon, and yet social networks are already the most popular activity on the Internet. Today, of the 100 most visited sites in the world, 20 are classic social networks and another 60 are socialized to one degree or another. More than 80% of companies around the world use social networks in their work. About 78% of people trust information from social networks. Entire revolutions are even organized through them. Social networks have become the very center of the modern Internet.
Information about the person
At the moment, social networks are essentially a huge database with a wide variety of information about hundreds of millions of people around the world, which is also well structured. Recently, networks are increasingly opening up to the outside world, and many personal data of users are already available to everyone. The more a person communicates on various social networks, the more information about him can be collected without any difficulty. That is why the controversial statement that “70% of information intelligence services collect from open sources” today takes on a completely plausible connotation.
Modern social networks offer users to indicate almost everything about themselves: photo; video; communications (including by type); interests; education; information about work; places where people visit; preferred products; personal thoughts, etc. Most of the information is available without registration, just find the user’s page on popular social networks, the rest can be seen after adding the user as a friend, and all information, including personal correspondence (at a minimum), is available to the administration of this network, and no privacy settings will hide it.
You can learn a lot about a person using social networks; we can cite the example of registering one person in various social networks and microblogs. So, with the help of the “My Circle” service, you can find out everything about a person’s work, where he worked, what achievements he has and what he aspires to. From a microblog like Twitter you can find out where he is and what he does. Unfortunately, this can lead to dire consequences. For example, Kaspersky’s son was kidnapped, partly thanks to his regular messages on Twitter, in which he indicated where he was going. From another point of view, now many employers check job applicants, including using social networks. Because a page in the “Face Book” can say a lot, for example, whether a person has bad habits (photos and posts from the candidate’s page can tell you about this) and much, much more. Many people themselves add information that can later “harm” them, without even knowing it. Thus, we can conclude that social networks are increasingly influencing a person’s life and go beyond the scope of “Internet communication.”
Social addiction networks– a new form of Internet addiction. Communication on social media networks are distinguished by their apparent ease and accessibility. Receiving comments, “likes” and other responses to statuses and photos posted on social media. network, a person feels interesting, needed, in demand. On social media online it’s so easy to get a lot of compliments under a photo or make a new friend with a couple of clicks. This perception leads to the replacement of reality with virtual life. We can talk about addiction if, after being without access to the Internet for several days, a person feels a strong desire to go online, irritation, and subsequently depression. These are symptoms of addiction, which can lead to the development of complexes, mood swings, depression and even sexual disorders.
Social addiction Networking is a psychological disease that requires consultation with a psychologist and treatment. Treatment will only be beneficial if you realize that there is a problem and replace virtual communication with real one. Close people can be of great help with this.
Quite often, addiction can lead to loss of work, relationships with loved ones and much more. Many psychologists are sounding the alarm about this, because this can be called one of the most pressing problems of the beginning of the 21st century. What will happen next is difficult to predict. For many modern people, it is already quite difficult to imagine the morning without access to social networks. There are many studies on this matter, for example, according to one of them, 96% of young people are registered in one or another social network. Social networks can also be a weapon directed both against people and on behalf of these same people. For example, with the help of social networks there was a coup in Syria. On the other hand, it is much easier to manipulate the masses with the help of viral videos shared by users themselves. You can “look away from the crowd” from an acute social (and other) problem. By drawing public attention to the use of illegal content on social networks, it is possible at this time to introduce other unpopular laws and raise taxes. Most of the “Internet community” will not pay attention to this, since for them it is much more important to use illegal content, since this seems to be a much more pressing problem. Someone will not pay attention to raising taxes at all because they will search “keywords”, where there will be no word about problems other than those they are looking for.
Social networks used for dating and communication are increasingly becoming popular among children and teenagers, adults and older people; What is it that attracts people to virtual communication and is there any harm and addiction to social networks of dating and communication.
Social networks on the Internet, in terms of the number of their participants, can be compared with the population of an entire country, these large-scale use of social networks force many branches of science to conduct research and observation: psychology, sociology, philosophy, economics, etc., in order to determine the influence of social networks on humans; his personal, psychological and emotional development and deviations from the norm; on the quality of life in general and psychopathological changes in personality.
Social networks in Russia and the world
In the daily developing Internet, Russian social networks, along with global networks, began to occupy high ratings, having a huge attendance of people of different ages and social classes.However, according to independent research, regular visitors to social networks on the RuNet are, to one degree or another, people who are dissatisfied with life and communication in reality, with weak and poor-quality time structuring, including those who have little normal pastime and enjoyable activities, as well as teenagers and people who are psychologically and emotionally immature.
Of course, in social networks in Russia there are many visitors running targeted, professional or semi-professional pages, but their motivation is clear, they need a large audience, for certain social, professional, economic and political purposes...
Psychology of Social Networks
Psychology of Social Networks is that a person, communicating and interacting online, seems to be able to safely and freely satisfy many of his natural, biological, psychological and emotional desires and needs.
Social dating networks
Many people use social networks for dating When trying to find friends and loved ones to establish close relationships, real meetings and real relationships often occur. However, correspondence, audio and video chats are usually started by people from different cities and even regions, which can complicate the desired meeting and continuation of relationships in real life.
Dating on social networks very often leads people into psychological dead ends, frequent failure to meet expectations, outright lies and exaggeration of the participants in the acquaintance, and sometimes direct fraud in virtual relationships, leads to despair, depression, psychological and emotional suffering.
Social networks for communication
Social networks for communication and created, but constant communication on social networks should not replace normal communication in reality.Only real communication and interaction can satisfy human biological needs; true friendship and love, true close relationships cannot be conceived on social networks. In them, you can maintain existing relationships due to the impossibility of a real meeting.
The harm of social networks
Everything is good in moderation, including communication on social networks, but excessive hanging out and spending time on them brings harm to a person, both on the mental and physical level.
The harm of social networks can become quite noticeable if you stay and communicate online for too long. This can lead to various psychophysiological problems: stress, depression and neuroses; disorders in personal and social development; violations of normal perception of reality and building interpersonal relationships.
The benefits of social networks
Research shows that there are benefits of social networks. Sometimes, it is when communicating on social networks that a person who has not learned to communicate, who is timid and indecisive, who has many complexes, etc., can open up, feel like a full-fledged, creative person and satisfy some psychological needs by communicating on a social network.
However, one should not be deluded, although there is a benefit from a social network, it is insignificant, and is more suitable for teenagers during puberty than for mature people who know how to communicate in reality.
One way or another, there is no need to replace real communication, interaction, acquaintances, friendship and love with virtual, pseudo-real social contacts.
Social media addiction
With prolonged and constant use of networks, virtual communication to the detriment of real, it appears social media addiction. Replacing normal and natural human contacts, including, in addition to verbal (verbal) interaction and exchange of texts and media files, non-verbal communication, using ordinary senses: touch, smell, taste; With the help of facial expressions and gestures, posture and bodily manifestations, people often on social networks become like “social disabled people”, with SMS-based, so to speak, thinking. Those. they cannot establish normal contacts, which are so necessary for establishing real, personal, family, and even working relationships; they often cannot find a common language and do not understand each other.The inability to perceive another person with the help of all innate senses, including all representative, sensory systems of a person, leads to the inability to find a suitable partner, including for family relationships and for business.
A person dependent on social networks and virtual communication, even with the possible implementation of real work and educational activities, becomes completely unsuitable for normal close relationships, both in love and in friendship. For a person dependent on social networks, not only thinking and concepts, but also feelings and emotions are replaced; many become robotic, one might say programmed zombie people, who are not responsible for their life and destiny, living according to a certain life scenario.
This modern dependence on social networks makes people unhappy, suffering from the inability to love and fall in love, make friends and interact with business partners, build harmonious, close relationships and receive from life the real joy of being and true communication with each other.
If you spend time on social networks incorrectly, it will negatively affect a person’s mental health. If previously it was mainly young people who “sat” on social networks, now the age range from 10 to 60 years old can be included in the category of “lovers” of this movement. Doctors give useful advice on how to properly use social media not to harm your health, but only for benefit.
Purpose of social networks
On social networks you can not only communicate, but also listen to music, watch videos, share your favorite quotes and thoughts. Communities of interests are created on social networks - medicine, books, fashion, sports, development, business. provide enormous opportunities for personal development. Moreover, these opportunities are absolutely free.
But, nevertheless, most of the fans of VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and other popular social networks use them to the detriment of mental and, in general, physical health. Although initially, if you set goals correctly and set yourself up to work effectively and spend time on the Internet, you can get a lot of benefits from it.
The dangers of social networks
First, scientists have discovered an interesting thing: when spending a long time on social networks, a person’s pleasure center is stimulated.
For reference! Pleasure centers are located in the brain and are represented as a plexus of nerve endings.
Every time we log into our social network account and see a like or a pleasant comment, it is a real pleasure for us. If we see a negative comment or dislike, then we don’t like it, we get annoyed. To get pleasant emotions again, we go to social networks again and again and wait for someone to write to us, approve of our actions, and do something nice for our brain.
The desire to enjoy a like or comment on social networks makes us go to social networks again and again. As a result, we spend a huge amount of time in them.
The second reason why social networks become addictive is the availability of information on them. Why read a thick book about fashion or sports (given as an example), if you can read a short post (publication) about them. If you are on the VKontakte social network, then in literally 10-15 minutes you can get a large amount of various information. Here they read the news, leave comments, consult with experts, share experiences, approve of someone’s actions, or vice versa - they say what is right and what is wrong. You can read a post and listen to music, or even watch a video at the same time. You can also simultaneously view friends’ news and share your impressions with them. As a result, time passes very quickly.
Oddly enough, our brain likes the mode of instant receipt and access to information. This means that within a month the social network will become a habit that will be difficult to break. Statistics show that it is almost impossible to get rid of the addiction of spending several hours a day on social networks.
People like the speed of social networks and their accessibility - even a child can register on VKontakte. If you constantly spend time on social networks, without understanding why you need it, then the consequences will be as described below - read them.
Pathological decrease in concentration
Physiologically, the brain is designed in such a way that it is easier for it to concentrate its attention on working with a small amount of information. And it’s even better that this information relates to different areas of life - the lives of friends, news, bright pictures, videos, etc. Consequently, the brain gets used to quickly receiving information and the next time it is difficult for it to concentrate on something for a very long time. If you have a task - to complete some work task for several hours, then you will put it off for a long time and go to social networks every now and then.
Moreover, children and adolescents become more dependent on it than adults. A person over 20 years old understands that he has more important tasks on which the quality of his life depends (work, personal life, hobbies).
Information dependence
Stress
If the brain is constantly under a change of pictures and impressions, then psycho-emotional fatigue occurs, which is followed by. In addition, constantly spending time on the phone or monitor screen is harmful.
Decrease in intelligence
It has been proven that spending time aimlessly on social networks reduces intelligence. Social networks do not carry any brain load (but only if you don’t start filtering information correctly). For example, if you are interested in medicine (descriptions of diseases, medical news, methods of treatment and diagnosis of symptoms and syndromes), then subscribe to a narrowly focused group and receive useful information. The medical portal has its own VKontakte group - https://vk.. There are no outside advertising or negative comments here - only objective data from the medical field. You will be able to read articles, medical news, interesting historical facts, watch videos on the topic - your brain will be fully loaded and concentrated.
Helpful advice: learn to filter information on the Internet, do not spend a lot of time on it, but live real life.
I have already touched upon the question of the dangers of social networks in other articles, but now I decided to consider this topic in a separate article. Here I will talk about how passion for social networks like Contact, Facebook, Odnoklassniki, Twitter can negatively affect a person’s mental health. I'll give you some tips on how to use social media for good, not bad. I also compiled a rating of social networks, which you can find at the end of the article.
Social networks have outlined trends in the development of the Internet towards integration, combining capabilities within single, multi-user web platforms. These platforms provided the user with the opportunity to communicate with friends, read news, watch movies, listen to music, share this with other participants, take part in discussions, unite by interests, create communities, and all these opportunities are concentrated on one site!
Undoubtedly, social networks are a great technological achievement that promises many opportunities. But along with these opportunities come troubles... It cannot be said that social networks are all harm, just as the same cannot be said, for example, about computer games. With the right, disciplined approach to this miracle of Internet technology, you can get some benefits and make your life easier. But there is always a risk that working with social networks will have harmful consequences on our psyche.
What consequences could this have? What is dangers of social networks? This will be discussed below.
Social media addiction
Social networks have a great addictive potential, that is, a significant risk of addiction. There are several reasons for this. The first reason is that social media activity irritates the pleasure centers in our brain. We experience pleasant emotions every time we read a friendly comment under our photo, receive a “like” when someone leaves a positive review, etc.
The desire to receive these emotions again brings us back to the vastness of social networks, forcing us to spend more and more time there.
The second reason lies in the peculiarities of assimilation of information when working in multi-user web platforms. A person who is in contact, for example, receives a lot of different information in small portions in a short period of time: he read a short comment, responded, immediately opened the news, looked at an interesting post in the community about science, began to read, turned on the audio recording at the same time, and didn’t read enough , since my attention was diverted by a message from a friend, I replied and went to this friend’s page to see what was new there.
The brain gets used to this mode of operation as quickly as the hands and mouth get used to the “clicking” of seeds. It’s not just about the pleasure itself and the peculiarities of assimilation of information, but about the convenience, speed and accessibility of social networks!
To enjoy another person’s opinion about your photo, you don’t have to suffer much: log in (even from your phone) and with one click see how many people “liked” your photo on the beach! To occupy your attention with something that is not stressful and captivating, you don’t need to look for an interesting article in the search engine: you opened a contact and started reading the news and watching your friends’ updates. Everything is fast and convenient.
Speed and accessibility, in my opinion, are important prerequisites for the formation of any addiction. A person instinctively looks for the easiest ways to achieve pleasure, even if these ways are ineffective and lead to harmful consequences. Take, for example, the habit of smoking. Fast and affordable.
Social Media Addiction Research
We often talk about addiction to social networks, not realizing how close to the truth we are. Psychologists from the University at Albany (USA) published in the journal Addiction an article that claims that you can be addicted to Facebook in the same way as you can be addicted to any chemical substances.
About 300 students aged 18 years and older participated in the study. The vast majority (90%) used a social network, spending about a third of all time spent on the Internet on it. All of them had to answer questions that were a test for alcohol dependence, only adapted to the social network - for example, one of the questions could sound like “How good does visiting Facebook make you feel?”
As a result, psychologists came to the conclusion that 10% of social network users experience psychological symptoms similar to those that occur with alcohol addiction. Of course, they often visited the Facebook page - but, in addition, if for some reason they could not do this, their irritation grew, and grew stronger the longer the person remained without their favorite social network. “Facebook addicts” developed emotional instability, impulsive behavior, and had less control over their own emotional impulses. By the way, those who were addicted to the social network often also had problems with alcohol. That is, as the authors of the study believe, addiction to Facebook facilitates the development of other types of addictions.
Any addiction arises from an exorbitant feeling of satisfaction, a reward, which our brain strives to experience again and again. On the social network, such “rewards” are presented in what is called an assortment, from “likes” to notifications about content updates. And at the same time, we don’t know when and how such an update will happen, who will like it and when, and such uncertainty in waiting for and receiving a reward strongly forms the habit of repeating certain actions, which is also very difficult to get rid of later . In the case of social networks, mobile applications make their contribution, thanks to which you can never bother with page updates and new news.
However, whether “Facebook addiction” is recognized as having a right to exist will become clear after further research; it is possible that this phenomenon will become part of some more general, globally media addiction, when a person can no longer imagine his existence without news, pictures, TV, social networks and the like.
Decreased attention span
Above, I wrote about how information can be absorbed by a user on social networks: quickly, spontaneously and in small portions. As I already said, the brain gets used to working with information in this way and gradually loses the ability to maintain attention on something for a long time. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder develops. This is a side effect generated by the philosophy of information integration: when working with a single web interface begins to combine many functions such as communication, listening to music, discussing meetings, etc., the user is tempted to do everything at once and perform several processes in parallel.
This has a bad effect on our thinking abilities. It becomes difficult to maintain attention for a long time, for example, while reading a book. Our mind, following an acquired habit, begins to jump from one subject to another. Therefore, difficulties arise in order to consistently think and think about one problem: attention constantly “floats away”.
This problem is especially acute in the context of the younger generation. Children's thinking is much more “plastic” than adults and therefore can more easily adopt harmful standards of thinking that form, among other things, social networks.
Information dependence
Social networks can turn into a kind of chewing gum for the brain. We get used to constantly receiving some kind of information and if this does not happen, we begin to experience information withdrawal. It is expressed in the fact that it becomes difficult for us to relax in those situations when little data enters the brain, for example, when we are traveling on the subway or are in the country. After all, our brain is always worried about not stopping chewing this gum and requires new pieces of information, as it is used to receiving it every day from social networks.
Fatigue, stress
Working in the mode of an incessant flow of information and successive emotional impressions, the brain becomes very tired and the body experiences stress. In addition, while working on social platforms you look at the monitor, and an overabundance of such activity itself leads to fatigue, no matter what you read.
Alienation, decreased intelligence
When you spend a lot of time on social networks, your brain is busy with meaningless and aimless activity, which cannot be called full-fledged intellectual work. You just keep him busy with something to keep him busy all the time, without thinking about the quality of the incoming information. Instead, you could think about something, come to a solution to life's problems, make plans for the future, come up with some useful idea, read a good book, etc. But all this is impossible while your mind is puzzled by chewing the Internet gum, turning you into a thoughtless and alienated zombie.
Due to the fact that information comes in quickly and continuously, you don’t have time to digest it or think it over. Emotions do not develop in response to incoming impressions, since this requires time and peace, which are not available in conditions of frantic assimilation of information. It’s as if you are throwing dumplings, salad, cucumbers, borscht, sweets into your mouth and without chewing... Combining sweet and salty, cold and hot in one culinary combination.
You can’t even say what you liked most, because you were in a hurry to swallow everything as quickly as possible and there was no time to form an assessment, some kind of emotional response. Besides, indigestion awaits you ahead...
Compassion, empathy, interest and passion disappear before they have time to really take shape in your psyche, as one information abruptly replaces another.
I should note that the above-mentioned consequences of harm can appear not only due to dependence on social networks. These symptoms can be the result of an excessive passion for computer games and the Internet in general, or a consequence of many manifestations of modern life: intense work, a fast pace of life, disorderly consumption of information, boredom...
The harm of social networks has been scientifically proven
Scientific experiment led by Edinburgh University scientist Ayad Rahwan, clearly proved the influence of social networks on the logic of thinking and decision making. The experience made it possible to prove a decrease in the analytical abilities and volumes of memorized data among the active audience of social networks.
The experiment consisted of two consecutive parts. In the first of them, participants were asked to solve a simple logic problem: the cost of a bat with a ball is 1.10 pounds, it is known that the bat is a pound more expensive than the ball. You need to find out how much the ball costs. Despite the easy complexity, after a short deliberation, few were able to voice the correct answer - the majority chose the option of 0.10 pounds, the correct one was 0.05.
After the correct answer was announced to the subjects, the second stage of the experiment began: the same task was posed to a group of people, some of whom already knew the solution. When asked for answers, many people's opinions quickly changed when they heard others' answers.
The experiment carried out, according to Ayad Rahwan, clearly demonstrates the rapid loss of analytical thinking and “superficial” perception of the situation. The opinions of many scientists regarding the stereotypical nature of human thinking agree on the existence of certain “models” of behavior caused by some external stimuli.
Such “models” imply almost the same order of actions in a familiar situation. Social networks contribute to the formation of false patterns of behavior, and also cultivate trust in unverified authorities, whose opinion may be decisive, but not always correct, when making any decision.
The doctor also emphasized that most modern social networks create a “superficial” perception and difficulties in assimilating a large amount of information. According to statistics, only a small percentage of visitors are able to read to the end a voluminous material that does not contain illustrations, and an even smaller number are able to deeply analyze what they read. In addition, the amount of stored data is rapidly decreasing due to almost constant access to the Internet.
Instagram has been named the worst social network for mental health
The British Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) has named Instagram as the most harmful social network affecting the mental health of young people. The RSPH has published a new report outlining the positive and negative effects of social media on the health of young people.
According to the survey, YouTube tops the table as the most positive media platform. Twitter took second place, followed by Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram in last place.
In total, about 1,500 people aged 14 to 24 took part in the survey. Respondents rated which of five popular social media platforms has the most negative impact on the psyche of users. Survey participants were asked to rate social networks in a number of categories and answer questions about the impact of the platforms on health and well-being.
In April, American researchers said that using Facebook makes you feel worse and increases weight. Scientists have concluded that Facebook negatively affects a person’s mental and physical well-being.
Is it possible to use social networks without harm?
Despite the terrible things that I described above, I am sure that social networks are not an absolute evil, you just need to use them wisely and in moderation in everything, as in many other things. I don’t see anything wrong with the opportunity to meet people with similar interests, find old acquaintances and rehabilitate past connections, have a convenient and accessible interface for communicating with your friends, listen to music (and find it) and watch movies. Social networks have a number of useful functions that make life and work on the Internet much easier.
This is a major technological and cultural breakthrough in the development of the Internet. But, as with many disruptive technologies, you need to be careful when working with social platforms so that they do not turn into harm. I will give some advice on the “hygiene” of spending time on social media. networks.
There is no need to log in and check VKontakte updates every hour, during every free minute at work or at home. Limit your visits to social media pages to, say, twice a day. If you are used to visiting social networks at work in your free minutes, then conduct this experiment. Instead of frantically opening your browser and logging into Odnoklassniki/Contact as soon as you are free from work, go out for a walk or just sit quietly for 10 minutes on a chair with the monitor turned off. Give your brain a break from information! At the end of the day you will feel much less tired, I assure you!
If you have a lot of free time at work, then it is better to spend it on something more valuable and necessary than social networks. Read informative articles, learn new things, because the modern Internet provides so many wonderful opportunities to obtain any information! The Internet is not only social networks!
If you follow this advice and spend less time in contact, for example, no more than half an hour a day, then you simply won’t have time left for any stupid activity, like the one that consists of commenting on every photo, liking every video, being keep up to date with all your friends' updates. Use social networks only for their intended purpose, that is, as an interface that allows you to communicate, exchange opinions, and learn about events. But do not abuse these opportunities, avoid unnecessary and meaningless “chatter”.
When you sit on social networks, you are killing your time, which could be spent on something more valuable that would benefit you in the future! The brain, busy chewing Internet gum, is not able to generate any ideas, any thoughts, it is exclusively engaged in stupid activity, working idle. A person who spends all his time on the Internet or TV is the embodiment of a social zombie from dystopian novels about the future. He doesn't think about anything, has no imagination, his mind is constantly occupied with likes, clicks and digesting media slop.
Social networks = control over the Internet?
Maybe social networks are a means of global control over the Internet. After all, many users spend the bulk of their time online on social platforms. For them, the Internet is limited to the space of these platforms. Social networks themselves only stimulate this trend, striving for greater integration, capturing more and more new functions (watching movies, music, games) for which we go online.
One global site is much easier to control than many local, disparate domains. Moreover, if such a site has moderation and a requirement for de-anonymization (registration strictly under one’s own full name). It is likely that the idea of a controlled Internet is already being developed in reality through the mass passion for social media.
Of course, this does not mean that social networks were invented precisely for this purpose. But the fact remains that despite the fact that social platforms want to claim full coverage of the opportunities that people want to get from the Internet, the information there is very limited, both in quantitative terms and in the ability to obtain this information using the capabilities of the engine. In short, most social networks are not aimed at ensuring that a person studies something and receives the information he needs in full.
These sites cannot become a full-fledged replacement for the entire Internet, no matter how much they strive for this. This is the main conclusion from the thoughts I outlined above. I don’t want to create any kind of paranoia in you based on the idea of total control and surveillance of you via the Internet. I myself regard all sorts of paranoid theories and people who are obsessed with them with slight irony. Just don't overuse social networks and remember that there are plenty of other useful sites, for example, Wikipedia, sites with popular science information, sites about self-development, specialized blogs... The Internet is not limited to social media.
My personal social network rating
To brighten up the gloomy tone that this article began to take on towards the end, let me tell you about my favorite social networks; it turns out that some sites can be quite useful.
Useful social networks
last.fm is my favorite social network. (And this is not an advertisement) It is designed to search for music and it is implemented there very conveniently, at least I really like it. I love music very much, I listen to different styles from electronic styles to jazz and rock. This site provides an excellent opportunity to find performers to your liking, based on your own musical preferences. The site learns about your tastes by connecting to your home media player (winamp, foobar) or ipod and receiving information about the songs played from there.
To search for new artists, you can use the system’s recommendations, you can search for similar musicians to those you like, you can search by style or find out what your friends are listening to. The system informs the user about events in his city that may be of interest to him. For example, if there is a performer in your listening library, Orbital, then the system in the “events” tab will notify you about the arrival of these musicians in your city. A very useful feature.
In short, there are many possibilities. But, like any social network, you can get stuck on last.fm: wander aimlessly through friends’ pages, leave stupid comments, move from link to link and waste time. Here, too, you need to know when to stop and use the site for its intended purpose. Then it can become very useful.
imdb.com With this site, choosing a movie to watch in the evening has ceased to be a long and labor-intensive task for me. I no longer need to read cumbersome reviews from homegrown film critics to find a movie that suits my tastes. There are many ways to search for films on this site: find your favorite film and the system displays a list of films that were liked by people who love any of your films. In fact, this is a very good algorithm. This way I discovered a lot of great films.
You can search by director, actor, soundtrack author. You can rate the films you watch yourself, and the system itself will give you recommendations. The imdb rating has long become an authoritative standard for evaluating films, which guides millions of movie lovers around the world when choosing films.
StumbleUpon - Recently discovered this great social network. The idea is this: when registering, you indicate your interests, for example, self-development, physics, pets, and press the magic “Stumble” button. The site's program searches for you pages on the Internet that match your interests, for example, “The 10 most fascinating physics experiments” if you marked “physics” in your interests. The page is shown directly in the interface window, that is, you don’t have to leave your profile page, you look at other sites as if through the StumbleUpon window.
At the same time, you have access to all the functions that are on the site that this social network shows you. You can leave comments, make purchases, etc.
The system shows you only those pages that other users liked. An excellent alternative to ranking your website in search engines. This system turns out to be indispensable in a situation when you want to spend time on the Internet, but don’t know where to start. StumbeUpon itself will suggest you pages that match your interests.
livelib.ru social network of books. I came across this site when I was trying to find something similar to last.fm, only not for music, but for books. I wanted to read, but didn’t know which book to choose. I was looking for a web service that would make my search easier. I haven’t spent much time on it, since I discovered it only recently, but, at first glance, the site is good and the interface is user-friendly. You can find literature for every taste, read reader ratings, author biographies, etc.
Less useful social networks
vk.com is a good site in terms of engine, capabilities and technology (although I’m not a big expert on web technologies, in my opinion, they are very, very advanced in the case of VK). True, if used inappropriately, side effects are possible, such as addiction and a pointless waste of time and everything that I wrote about above. But, nevertheless, the site is convenient in many respects.
You can listen to almost any piece of music, watch movies, and all this is free. There is an opportunity to find old acquaintances from school, work, pioneer camp, etc. For me, contact is convenient because you can easily view pictures on any topic: travel, painting, old photos, etc. All this is presented in the appropriate groups and is very easy to find.
VKontakte also provides a convenient interface for communicating with other users.
I like facebook.com much less than in contact. You can't watch movies, just like you can't listen to music. The engine is not as intuitive as VK's. VKontakte was originally a clone of FB, but now, in my opinion, contact has surpassed facebook. I even feel some kind of pleasant pride in Russian developers and programmers.
Useless platforms
twitter.com - this site is simply a neutered version of Facebook, stripped down to the ability to write short statuses, broadcast them into a general thread and receive replies to them. However, Twitter has become very popular. Of course, on this site you can read good quotes and learn about the latest news, but in general, I don’t see much use in this social network. Although I have an account there (link at the top right of the page) =).
There are many more social networks, both in RuNet and in the international segment, and, exclusively, on the English-language Internet. But I can’t tell you anything more about any platforms, since I only worked with the above examples.
Social networks can bring many benefits: help you find an old friend, find out about a new book or music album, organize a meeting and event. But abuse of social networks (the Internet, work, computer games) can lead to addiction, loss of attention, waste of time, alienation and dullness. Social networks are not a great evil, as many people believe. This is both good and bad. It is in your power to take only the good from them and weed out the bad.
