Welcome to the Information Age. It’s 2017 and our world has become a complex, intricate, and unfathomably large web of interconnected information—a web in which each of us plays a role. This web is the internet, and a major part of this entity is social media. The giants of this industry, if it can be referred to as such, include Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. On these platforms, fear and hate can spread faster than anything, narcissism runs rampant, and younger and younger kids start comparing themselves to models or movie stars, feeling angry at themselves that they do not looks and act in the same ways. With these negative consequences hanging above all of our heads, I have begun to wonder if social media is worth it or not.

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There is a brighter side, however, that must be considered too. Countless individuals share stories of rekindled friendships and reconnected bonds, and platforms such as Instagram or Facebook allow friends far from one another to stay in contact. There is an article I read recently in the New York Times, written by a regular columnist who shared a story of revisiting a deceased friend’s twitter page. The story was heart-warming, and exhibited one of the better qualities of social media as it preserved the author’s friend in writing. My only concern is that these positives are not enough to tip the scale in favor of social media.

All this considered, I still feel that social media does more harm than good. It fosters a comparative culture and encourages conformity especially among younger groups. I also worry that social media, in just a few years, will be an extension of mass consumerism, and will act as yet another way for all of us to be manipulated by corporations.    

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This being said, I too have an Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, the list goes on. One last positive of social media is just this, the fact that each person has the choice to participate or not. I believe that it is for each individual to decide whether or not to take part in social media. However, I think that it is equally important that each person should take the time to evaluate how social media affects his or her own lives. Make your own personal pros and cons list, and really consider the impact that these webs of social interconnectivity have on each of your lives.