Social Media: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Truth

I think one should know how to use social media correctly and not to the extend that real life communication would be ignored. I use fb for example only to communicate with my relatives and friends around the world and for backlinking my articles. Enjoy your Sunday!

Excellent article here torrilynn, HubPages is a form of social media. Thank you for sharing. May we all be good friends to each other and spread love in our very own way!

We need them if we have a business and they are great to talk to friends all over the world, but yes sometimes they take up too much time and some folks post TMI - LOL

I found your site very interesting to read Torri. I am on a couple of social media sites and I use as little info as possible. I voted it up, shared, pinned and Tweeted it.

Kevin

I agree. We are all hooked on social media, and use it daily, but there are many negatives. One of the biggest negatives for me is that it gets to the point where nothing is real. I miss real letters, postcards, and phone calls.

Good discussion here. I think social media has contributed to the rise of incivility because people feel like they are insulated behind their computer screens. They will say rude, awful things that they never would say to someone in person.

I'm sorry I think I misunderstood the conclusion. While I agree with you that there are both positive and negative effects. I feel like the positive outweighs the negative. But then again, I have never dealt with cyber bullying. I agree with Duchess and you that we need classes that teach people how to use social networking and the internet. Before watching the movie cyberbully, I remember thinking why don't people just ignore negative comments or block/delete them? Now I know it's harder when you have deal with the effects in the real world and sometimes people don't even know how to block the negativity or report it and ask for help. Although, I personally don't think the impact is negative, I can see how it has been for many people. Still thank you for the hub, it is an important discussion that is pertinent to our here and now.

I agree with your conclusions the positive effects of Social networking far out way the negative. I love being able to collaborate with like minded individuals. I think that the benefit of information sharing is truly amazing. Thanks for sharing!

A lot of important points are brought to the fore here, and I largely agree with your points. Some of the fun has also gone out of our friendly relationships as when we meet for coffee, we already know what the friend has been up to, and the expectation of listening to the latest is lost. The keeping up to date with news, events etc is always good though and I enjoy that very much. Up, interesting and useful.

Interesting perspectives here. I think perhaps it is not just social media, but the internet at large that has created some of these issues. That, plus the fact that we were not really equipped to know how to deal with it all because we did not know all the ins and outs of how it worked, or would work.

Now that we have a better understanding of the difficulties that can arise from so much virtual interaction, perhaps we should be teaching these things at home and at school. As well as how to cope, and how to deal with it all.

Just my thoughts.

I do not think social media will ever go away.....it will just keep evolving very rapidly...who knows what will be the next big thing....but I bet in 10 years....there will be a new Facebook and a new Twitter.....and will be the current Facebook/Twitter seem behind the times.

I enjoyed reading your hub and causes me to think....job well done.

Voted up and across the board.

The balance between good and base usage is still undecided, but I do believe it is addictive which is not a good thing. Social media can be a good thing, but I believe some people should be educated on proper usage in order to prevent harm to others (and themselves!). Good food for thought, Torrilynn.

You highlight some important points here. Some say that the amount of violent crime as well as other harm done to people via social media is underreported due to the fact that victims are embarrassed that they opened themselves up to the crimes by revealing too much about themselves to too many people and by interacting with people that they thought were telling them the truth.

i agree with you Torri that social media when used wrongly can have such disastrous effect. Heard of people killed or raped because they abused what these social media can give to them.. we just have to be very careful.

Interesting hub. I sometimes wonder if people get lonely using social media instead of real life connections. Thanks for this.

I think the biggest problems are time consumption and the amount of troubled people who use social media, forums and even comments on articles to bully and harass. That's why I'm wary of social media. But it definitely is a way for people to develop strong friendships with others around the world. So, I have mixed feelings overall.

Hi torrilynn,

We have just witnessed the power of social media, toppling dictatorial governments and instilling government reforms. Personally i think social media has a big role to play in the society. Voted up, useful and shared.

I agree. It's sad to say but I know people of all ages that use FB, Twitter, Instagram to lie about how their lives actually are, to bully others, or as just one of many routes of cheating on their significant others or spouses. When "found out" these same people either go private or delete the account for a while. I like talking on the phone or in person, everything can't be expressed from behind a computer screen or mobile phone keyboard/keypad. I am just "old fashioned."

Nice and thoughtful article you've written regarding social social. Somewhat reminds me of a previous article I wrote about Facebook awhile back. I agree with you on many of the points you made. Social media has definitely taken over a majority of the people's lives. For a lot of people, it's become the primary way of communication, which is good in some aspects, but it can also be a bad thing. Great article and great perspective. Voted up, and shared.

I definitely agree with Billybuc on how social media is starting to take the real life human factor or the simply conversing on the phone aspect of life out of the equation. I'm all for change and evolution in technology, but it does not beat real life human interaction or a personal phone call. Sharing and voting up.

You make some important points, torrilynn. I do not know if the average person realizes employers, opposing counsel in many lawsuits, etc., can and do search social media. So those pictures on someone's profile at a party having a great time and obviously drunk or the person who brags about something they did, etc., can and often do end up where they least expect them to.