Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media

In the recent past social media has grown from entertainment to majorly business-oriented traffic.

The launch of social media was decades back when the demand of people was limited. The lifestyle was ordinary. The purpose of social media was in a shell. As the world started to modernize, the usage of social media grew from entertainment to business. Not only individuals but businesses, groups and communities are run on social media to gain a virtual identity. What is virtual identity? Virtual identity is for the audience who are perceiving you online. The part of our life which is not personal.

Where on one hand the growth of social media grew individuals and businesses. On the other hand, it degraded mental and physical health conditions. It affected social well-being and personal lives of people.

Advantages of social media

1. Source of entertainment– it is a primary purpose of social media. Social media is a subtle source of entertainment. There is content related to almost everything. Such as food, latest dresses in trend, hairstyle, makeup, dance, music, quotes, art and craft and stories. This can keep you entertained for a long time. When talking about entertainment. How can we forget about reels? The reel section is the highest engagement section. The reel feature started to exist after the ban of TikTok and people are loving this feature.
2. Creation of organic content– social media enables to creation of organic content for free, which is the most liked feature of social media by businesses. One can create unlimited content and post on social media. This can get you connected with valuable leads. Social media provides relevant features to make high-quality organic content through videos, photos and reels. And make you gain 1000 likes and comments from the audience.
3. Can connect you to a large audience– In 2020 over 3.6 billion people were using social media worldwide. For 2025 the projected number is 4.41 billion. This means that you can connect to a large audience. Hence social media gives a big platform to showcase your business and ideas.
4. Paid advertisement– other than organic posting, you can use the feature of paid advertising on social media. Your advertisement will be run on social media, and your customers can reach you by just scrolling and a few clicks. This is an easy and effective method for sales.
5. Paid benefits– social media gives many opportunities to earn. There are benefits after crossing a benchmark set by social media. For example, you get paid on TikTok after crossing 10,000 followers and you get 2 to 4 per cent paid for every 1000 TikTok likes.
6. Driving website traffic– when you post organic content and use advertisement features your website traffic increases. As more people are now able to see you and approach you. You can post content with a website link attached to it. This is a direct road to your website. They can check your website and services. More traffic on the website will create an enhanced possibility for growth.
7. Can evaluate your performance– the business and customer relationship are not one-sided. Social media not only allows us to post content by also gives the power to the audience to like, comment on their opinion, and give reviews and ratings. With this feedback, you can evaluate your performance and look for improvement.
8. Join social media networks for free– the biggest benefit of social media marketing is you can join the networks for free. None of the largest social media platforms charges money for signing up. The only thing you need to invest in is time.

Disadvantages of social media

1. Addictive– social media is a great addiction, especially among youth. People of young age use social media for an insignificant number of hours which affects their sleep cycle and release stress hormones in the body. Insomnia due to social media can cause anxiety.
2. Differentiation– social media can cause a feeling of comparison, especially among youth. Who has a greater number of followers, who has got the photogenic profile and who gets the maximum number of likes and comments on a post? All these topics are subject to comparison. Comparison can create self-doubts. These self-doubts can cause depression, studies show that most people using social media have a high chance of getting into depression.
3. Cyberbullying– in recent years many children have become victims of cyberbullying. People create fake accounts and identities to threaten people, especially among girls. They complain to receive unnecessary and disturbing messages and photos on social media from unknown accounts. Cyberbullying incidents have caused many suicides. It can put a person into depression and encourage them to take severe steps.
4. Hacking– social media users are an open treat to hackers. We put everything on our social media from what we are wearing to what we are eating. Due to which it gets easy for hackers to prey on your profile. Revealing minute details on social media is harmful. Hackers can breach your sensitive data and misuse it.
5. Lack of social life– being social animals, we have a life other than social media. But nowadays we have chosen social media as a lifestyle. This is refraining us from society. We tend to spend every free hour of our day scrolling social media. This time can be used to spend quality moments with friends and family.
6. Lack of face-to-face communication– social media is the most prevalent way of communication these days. People interact on social media through messages and texts. The worst disadvantage of this is they lack communication skills in person. They get used to typing their thoughts rather than explaining.
7. Fake news– surfacing of fake news on social media is very common. They spread rapidly, people post fake content and spread it worldwide. Social media plays a significant role in dissemination of fake news.
8. Mental health constraints– social media affects mental health poorly. Most people using social media are depressed in life. From causing insomnia to differentiation among people. Therefore, social media initiates poor mental health.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, where social media offers benefits to businesses and an opportunity for growth, on the other hand it is a demerit for personal health be it physical or mental. It is good to use if used efficiently, keeping the demerits in mind one must use it for purposeful reasons.