The open access nature of social media, especially with the possibility of everyone being a content creator, as long as one has a camera or phone, a tripod, and a high dose of confidence, is something we should approach with caution.
In using social media, we get informed about countless things from everywhere, most interestingly, with widely varying degrees of truthfulness or genuineness. This variance permeates all content genres, given the different interests of social media beneficiaries, that is, platform owners, content creators, and the final consumer, who is the person accessing such content.
In other words, depending on where we are in the world of social media, we can be on the receiving end of false, misleading, and, in the worst cases, traumatising and permanently damaging content.
Most people today learn things from social media, whether it is politics, social dynamics, health, technology, DIYs (‘do-it-yourself’ tutorials), parenting, or languages. The list is endless. The open access nature of social media, especially with the possibility of everyone being a content creator, as long as one has a camera or phone, a tripod, and a high dose of confidence, is something we should approach with caution.
A relevant real-life analogy would be a hilarious one. Imagine walking in a crowd, stopping in front of anyone and listening with complete trust to whatever they have to say, then moving on to the next random person, and another, and another, for hours! This is exactly what we do on social media, especially on visual platforms.
The chances of ten consecutive reels or posts communicating the same feeling are extremely slim. Ten differently themed posts can take us through ten different emotional responses, such as joy, surprise, fear, worry, anger, agitation, anticipation, disappointment, disgust, assurance, doubt, and confusion. The list is endless and unpredictable, just like human emotions themselves.
At this point, we can already see the potential for significant damage to the cognitive and emotional responses of users, especially because for them everything that appears on social media first makes a face-value impression of being real. We do not automatically judge the content on social media as unreal until we have watched and critically analysed it. Since we react before assessing its truth, we are emotionally affected long before we decide whether what we have seen is ‘real’ or ‘fake’.
These effects are stronger in young people, whose sense of judgement is not yet fully matured. Still, the vulnerability exists for all social media users, as emotional triggers overlap for children and adults alike, even if they differ in form.
As a nation with a predominantly young population, it is important to take note of these issues and inform our people, especially the youth, in order to ease the societal burden of mental health challenges linked to excessive social media consumption. Research already shows that exposure to short-video content harms children’s ability to learn, remember, and concentrate. Such childhood issues often lead to more complex problems in adulthood, as they are hardly reversible given the delicacy of early developmental stages.
To avoid being overly theoretical, we must discern the best modus operandi for engaging with social media, which is practically an indispensable social and economic player.
There must be emphasis on the productive use of social media from an early age: educating young people on its countless opportunities while also warning of its many dangers, including addiction, propaganda, explicit content, artificial intelligence, curated personas, digital illusions, fake news, cyberbullying, scams, etc., and teaching them how to protect both themselves and their digital identities. It is worth noting that all of these have contributed significantly to the emotional rollercoaster that shakes and spins social media users.
It is also important to integrate awareness of holistic health, including mental and emotional health. For many people, as long as they are not physically ill, they find it hard to accept that they may need therapy or help. Education is needed in this area, as the harmful effects of mental health and emotional problems are felt all around us.
Constant exposure of children to social media can shorten their attention spans and affect their cognitive growth, making them shallow thinkers who neither fully process information nor store it in long-term memory. Many children lack proper sleep, have mood swings, lose focus, struggle with real-world interaction, and often imitate risky behaviours they encounter online, unable to clearly distinguish between social media illusions and real life.
However, with proper parental guidance, social media can become advantageous for children. It can help them learn, be more creative, and feel like part of the global community by broadening their awareness of the world. With parental control, children can mature emotionally while benefiting from social media.
Shimbo Pastory is an advocate for positive social transformation and a student of the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. Website: www.shimbopastory.com
