Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

Ah, social media. The technology that's got the internet in a chokehold ever since the 2000's, no matter how much we try to distance ourselves from it. We've all know the big social medias, don't we? Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram, Discord, Messenger, Reddit, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Vine... I'm pretty sure you recognize at least some of the ones I mentioned, right? Especially Facebook and Messenger. But of course, prolonged use of social media, or just.. anything, as a matter of fact, will eventually have an impact of someone. The effects and impact of social media ocan be quite damaging to someone's self-esteem, and social media can turn from just being a fun little function that comes with the internet, into something that severely affects and messes with your mind. In this declamation, I shall talk about how social media can possibly affect you and ruin your mental well-being. Disclaimer, though; I'm not saying that social media will ruin your mental health. After all, with proper use and self-control, using social media can be fun to indulge yourself in. But when you can't do both of that, using social media is... probably not a good idea. So! Let's get right into it. First of all, self-esteem issues. Internet addicts who are always terminally online usually have self-esteem issues and doesn't have any sense of self-worth whatsoever. Why? Well, let me explain by giving an example. Let's say you use Instagram 24/7. Everyday, you see all those selfies and photos of people that are considered 'pretty' or 'handsome' or anything of that sort. Even when you try to ignore it, Instagram's algorithm naturally pushes those viral photos and you see them all the time whether you like it or not. Eventually, those selfies will eventually become your standard for beauty, and you'll start to hate how you look since you don't meet your own standards. That's just one example. I have another one as well. Let's say you constantly see celebrities bragging about their fortune everyday. Naturally, you'd start to draw comparisons between your life and their life. Your thinking could either be "Wow, another celebrity bragging again? Must be nice having all that money, yet they're just spending it however they want. While I'M barely scraping by over here. They don't deserve their fortune, I do." Or "Man, other people are succeeding at life. Meanwhile, what have I been doing? I should've been more productive back then, I should've done this, done that, done this...". Basically, what I'm saying here is that social media users are constantly exposed to unrealistic depictions of others' lives, and this will plant unrealistic expectations on themselves, making an impact on their self-esteem and fester self-doubt in their mind. Okay, second. It's been found that social media users are more likely to be anti-social. Wow, I've been saying 'social' alot.. but back to topic. People who had few friends before using social media are especially at risk, as they would use social media to compensate for their less developed social skills. The feelings that they get from getting a 'like' may temporarily relieve their feelings of loneliness, but it's just that. A temporary feeling, a fleeting moment of happiness. This can lead to them being addicted to that feeling and isolating themselves even further from their contacts, addicted to the feeling of being validated by some stranger in the internet. Also, not only that, but we have endless ways of socializing with other people now. You can connect with your friends, or some complete stranger that's on the other side of the world. Ironically, these social medias that were designed for socializing has caused people to become more anti-social, which is honestly sad and funny to me at the same time. Let's be honest, relationships and connections in the internet are shallow. Even when you argue that there may be actual friendships formed through the internet, the fact still stands that the majority of relationships formed there are shallow. Can confirm, as someone who is absolutely addicted to the internet. This will lead to the user to form the mindset that connections are meaningless and shallow, that talking to other people is unnecessary. Third, it's been found that social media users have shorter attention spans. You may notice the users have symptoms of ADHD and sleep deprivation, which certainly doesn't help. They have a harder time focusing on one thing because social media is designed to keep your attention for as long as possible, and feeds you bite-sized content all the time. Like, scroll, like, comment, scroll, like, scroll, scroll. That's basically their routine; consuming bite-sized content and scrolling past when said content is too large to consume in 5 seconds or something. Tiktok is a guilty example of this. One minute videos, with fast-paced voices and compressed information within them. If the video is too slow to their liking, the user scrolls past the video, already disinterested 30 seconds in the video. This leads to people having trouble remembering names and decreased attention in their tasks. Can confirm, because that's basically me. So teachers, if you have a student who has a short attention span and uses their phone all the time, social media's probably the perpetrator. I'm sure I have convinced you of why social media is bad for your mental well-being, yes? Unless you spaced out while I was talking. In that case, I'm sorry for being so uninteresting. While social media has it's upsides, like being able to keep in touch with friends from far-away and being up to date with events and news... In my opinion, I think the use of social media is too addictive and unhealthy to my liking. But then again, that makes me a hypocrite, since I literally use social media at least 4 hours a day.. The fact that I'm speaking to you like this is because I don't want people to follow the same footsteps as me and other social media users; too addicted to a bunch of pixels in a gadget. But don't worry, there are ways to avoid the things I just mentioned. First, remember that social media does not represent reality nor does it dictate your identity as a whole. Draw the line between social media and reality; when you find yourself wasting 2 hours of your life in social media, remind yourself to go outside, feel the sun on your skin, touch grass, and socialize. Second, don't be too reliant on the internet as your way of entertainment. Want me to present alternate forms of entertainment other than the internet? Old school games. Sports. Puzzles. Books. Movies. Indulging in your hobby. Shopping. There you go, I just presented some entertainment ideas for y'all that doesn't involve the internet! And here concludes my rather.. amateurish declamation. Hope you liked it, because honestly, I don't like this declamation and I feel like it's too casual. Anyway, my name's Tristelle Athena F. Ambulan from 9 - Azure, and adios!