Advantages and disadvantages of social media

Social media has deeply infiltrated into everyone’s life and is believed to be
replacing our face-to-face interaction. This situation, although advantageous
in certain aspects, is generally a detriment to true human communication in
the long run.
On the one hand, there are a number of benefits from using social networks to
communicate. Firstly, they facilitate communication in the modern times as
now people can globally connect with old friends and relatives or with others
who share common interests. For example, Facebook is currently providing
service for 2.4 billion users who can choose to connect and interact with
anyone they want, regardless of where they are. Secondly, study sessions are
frequently happening on social networking websites through live streaming
services. Therefore, learners around the world now can have free access to
online classes on such sites.
On the other hand, the disadvantages of social media replacing face-to-face
interaction are much more concerning. As these sites are becoming more and
more dominant and attract large numbers of new users every day, people can
fall prey to online communication abuse, such as online bullying and
harassment. In fact, social networking websites can become a toxic
environment where users can be verbally assaulted because there are only a
few rules, most of which are spoken rules rather than established guidelines,
that restrict hateful or abusive contents. Furthermore, overuse of social media
to communicate can lead to people downplaying the importance of face-toface interaction on which true human relationships thrive. Nowadays, many
young and reclusive users prefer living in a virtual world on social sites than
engaging in real-life relationships. This may have serious mental effects, such
as increased stress, anxiety and loneliness.
In my conclusion, the downsides of social media replacing face-to-face
interaction are more significant than the benefits users could reap from those
sites.