Negative Effects of Social Media on Society and Individuals

Social Media networks are claimed to be have more drawbacks than benefits to society and individuals. Below are some of the identified disadvantages of the social media networks:  

Decreased Productivity

Overuse of social media can lead to decreased in productivity. The sites can also prove a great distraction to employees who may show more interest in what their friends are posting than in their work tasks. The employees during their business hours should be focusing on their works instead of the browsing the social media sites. 

Companies must monitor the issue by either limiting the number of hours for social media browsing or churning out reports on the websites visits by the employees and start penalizing the social media junkies. 

Privacy

Social networking sites encourage people to be more public about their personal lives. Because intimate details of our lives can be posted so easily, users are prone to bypass the filters they might normally employ when talking about their private lives. What's more, the things they post remain available indefinitely. While at one moment a photo of friends doing shots at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less attractive in the context of an employer doing a background check. While most sites allow their users to control who sees the things they've posted, such limitations are often forgotten, can be difficult to control or don't work as well as advertised.

A False Sense of Connection

According to Cornell University's Steven Strogatz, social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media. By focusing so much of our time and psychic energy on these less meaningful relationships, our most important connections, he fears, will weaken.