Social media and personal idenity (pg 239-241)

What is good about social media?

• Gives everyone a voice, making them feel valued and that their opinion counts

• Creates communities with shared interests, providing a sense of belonging

• Allows self-expression, meaning people can be themselves

• Promotes good causes and raises awareness of issues, enabling people to feel that they can actively help others

• Provides opportunities for work through posts about new jobs

• Helps to build business brands by advertising to attract more customers and earn more money

• Shared information (e.g the news) provides people with up-do-date knowledge, which helps keep personal and business contacts

What is bad about social media?

• It can become addictive

• It can be inappropiate or offensive

• It can affect mental health

How can it become addictive?

Social media alerts can make it difficult to swtich off from using technology.

This can impact/change your behaviour like your sleeping habits

How can it be inappropiate or offensive?

• Share harmful content (pornography)

• Cyberbullying or racial slurs and attacks (easier to say things on social media than face to face)

Another point: on avrg people use social media for about 2h.

There is evidence that people who spend a long time online are more likely to suffer from anxiety and stress disorders

How can it affect mental health?

• Comparing your content to other people’s make you feel pressured to keep up with popular current trends

• Trends are fleeting

• It can lower self esteem and lead to a feeling of inadequacy (cannot afford to buy designer brands/body image)

Basically might lead to/worsen issues like anxiety, loneliness and depression

How can we make communications technology safer? Example?

• Safeguarding regulations

• The UK Online Safety Act 2023 is a set of laws that protects children and adults online (particularly children)

  • Platforms will be required to prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content and provide parents and children with clear and accessible ways to report problems online when they do arise.