Social media has become an overwhelmingly normal thing in today’s society in terms of how we interact with one another. Whether it’d be Facebook, Twitter, or even Youtube to a certain degree, communicating through the web has become convenient to the point where regular people are now able to interact with each other throughout the entire world.
Many people won’t deny the benefits of social media for ordinary people, especially as such platforms have grown to where individuals can do much more than just send messages. However, like anything else, every activity requires a level of moderation to hinder potential overexposure. This sort of mindset is essential for social media use because despite the good it brings to some people, too much usage could hurt a person’s mental state in the long run.
Being on social media for too much could expose the user to troubling aspects of the internet, with issues like cyberbullying that could generate a high level of stress. That’s why it’s for every social media user to understand that the internet is a different environment than in real life when interacting with other people.
Helen Schifter believes one of the biggest reasons for that is the lack of repercussions for acting a certain way through the internet rather than in the outside world. Bullying someone, for instance, through the internet is more enabled than doing it in the outside world where someone has more of a chance of stopping it. Through social media, it’s a different story. Cyberbullying, in many ways, is an epidemic that has not only garnered extreme levels of depression for many people but also suicides as well.
With that said, it’s important that if one decides to spend time on social media, as there’s nothing inherently wrong with being an active user, one must moderate using social media to get the best experience possible.
When it comes to interacting with other social media users, it’s recommended that the one who communicates should do it with people that are known to that person, like family and friends, for example. Not to say that communicating with strangers is wrong as there’s nothing wrong with interacting with other people in a kindly manner, but too much exposure could be bad if talking to the wrong crowd.
Furthermore, it’s also essential while on social media to make sure that whatever content is being shared on the internet, it’s not too personal to where someone could potentially take advantage and damage someone’s life. Whether it’d be information about someone’s housing address even related to finances, those are private matters that shouldn’t be shared no matter what in terms of social media content. Once something is uploaded to the internet, it’s hard to get rid of it, as such content becomes more vulnerable for people to take advantage of. In conclusion, a woman named Helen Schifter, a former fashion editor, discusses people’s mental health regarding social media, as people can learn from the knowledge of Schifter.