Oversharing Online.

 Hello! 

I'm back with my second weekly post where I would like to talk about social media and some of the influences it has had on our society's ability to communicate efficiently. This is especially important for my generation because our life has and will always include social media/online resources as a mainstream source of information and communication. 

Here's a link to a helpful article by University of Canada West to help understand how social media can be beneficial for our ways of communication: https://www.ucanwest.ca/blog/media-communication/how-has-social-media-emerged-as-a-powerful-communication-medium/

I think that different types of social media sites offer completely different drawbacks and benefits depending on how they are utilized. These drawbacks/benefits are entirely influenced by the site's specific purpose, targeted audience and the features they choose to have. Let's list some positives for a couple of the most popular social media sites like: Twitter, Youtube and Instagram. Twitter is used for many things but it can be extremely helpful when facilitating live/real time, important information like news to thousands of people at once. Youtube is a platform creators use to release and publish videos for news, entertainment and to help monetize their work. Instagram is known for visual content like pictures and videos which greatly helps small creators publish their artwork, photography and brands. On the other side of the spectrum there have been many issues with networking sites non-consensually sharing user's data which should remain private, and negatively impacting the mental health of thousands of users due to intense social comparison. 

                                                        

Now, staying on the topic of mental health I also would go as far as to say that Social Media networks should take more responsibility to promote better mental health to their users. Social Media literally facilitates every online interaction and caters to every user experience, so why do they not take further steps to cultivate a healthier culture for mental health? Some steps they could take proceed as follows: Adjust algorithms to promote positive content to educate and support users having healthy interactions. Inform users about the dangers of social media, coping mechanisms for struggles and the importance of seeking help when it is needed, all while making this information extremely accessible to every user. These are just my suggestions for how social social media could be improved, feel free to comment if you have any suggestions of your own! 

Thank you guys! :)