Social Media: Definition, Effects, and List of Top Apps

What is Social Media?

Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which
they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual
communities and networks.
Social media is a digital technology that facilitates the sharing of text and
multimedia through virtual networks and communities.
Social media facilitates the sharing of ideas and information through virtual
networks. From Facebook and Instagram to Twitter and YouTube, social
media covers a broad universe of apps and platforms that allow users to
share content, interact online, and build communities. More than 4.7 billion
people use social media, equal to roughly 60% of the world’s population.

Today, social media messaging apps and platforms are the most
commonly used sites worldwide. In early 2023, 94.8% of users accessed
chat and messaging apps and websites, followed closely by social
platforms, at 94.6% of users. Search engine sites were next, with 81.8% of
users accessing them.

In 2022, the number of social media users worldwide grew by 137 million,
or about 3%.

Social media typically features user-generated content and personalized

profiles that lend themselves to engagement via likes, shares, comments,
and discussion.

The largest social media platforms are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp,

Instagram, and WeChat.

How Did Social Media Evolve?

Social media originated as a way to interact with friends and family but
soon expanded to serve many purposes. In 2004, MySpace was the first
network to reach one million monthly active users.3
Social media participation exploded in the years that followed with the
entry of Facebook and Twitter. Businesses gravitated toward these
platforms in order to reach an audience instantly on a global scale.

On average, global users spent 2.24 hours each day on social networks in
2020, the highest across almost any media type.2

According to Global Web Index, 46% of internet users worldwide get their
news through social media platforms. That compares to 40% of users who
view news on websites. Gen Z and Millennials were most likely to view
news on social media sites versus other generations.2

Social media plays a key role in businesses' marketing strategies given the
sheer amount of time individuals spend each day on social platforms and
apps. At the same time, social media is an ever-changing field. New apps
such as TikTok, Signal, and Clubhouse have joined the ranks
of established social networks like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and
Instagram.

Types and uses of Social Media?

Social media platforms can be categorized according to the interests of

their users and their purposes. There are platforms that appeal to video
game players, social gamers, video sharers, professional business
networks, virtual worlds, review platforms, and beyond.

Social media helps people to keep in touch with friends and extended
family and expand their personal networks to include people with similar
interests.

Some people use social media for professional networking and finding
career opportunities. Many use it to connect with people who have similar
interests and to share their own thoughts, personal updates, and insights.

People use various social media applications to network career

opportunities, find others across the globe with like-minded interests, and
share their political views. Entertainers and politicians use social media to
engage with constituents and voters.

For businesses, social media has become a key tool. Companies use the
platforms to find and engage with customers, drive sales through
advertising and promotion, gauge consumer trends, and offer customer
service or support.
Social media's ability to collect information helps businesses to fine-tune
their marketing campaigns and conduct market research. It helps
companies promote products and services as it enables the distribution of
targeted, timely, and exclusive sales and coupons to potential customers.
Further, social media can help build customer relationships through loyalty
programs linked to social media.

151 minutes
The average daily social media usage of internet users ages 16 to 64
worldwide.

What Are the Top Social Media Sites?

Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world with 2.96 billion
users. Here are the figures for the most popular social media websites as
of January 2023:

1. Facebook (2.96 billion users)

2. YouTube (2.51 billion users)
3. WhatsApp (2 billion users)
4. Instagram (2 billion users)
5. WeChat (1.31 billion users)
6. TikTok (1.05 billion users)
7. Facebook Messenger (931 million users)
8. Douyin (715 million users)
9. Telegram (700 million users)
10. Snapchat (635 million users)

Interestingly, two sites that are especially well-known in the U.S., Twitter
and Pinterest, don't make the top 10 list globally. Twitter is 14th, with 556
million users worldwide, while Pinterest is 15th with 445 million users.1

What Are the Six Types of Social Media?

The types of social media can be broken down in many ways but are most
often divided into six categories. They include social networking,
bookmarking, social news, media sharing, microblogging, and online forum
sites.

What Are the Top 10 Social Media Apps?

Globally, the top 10 social media apps are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp,
Instagram, WeChat, TikTok, Facebook Messenger, Douyin, Telegram, and
Snapchat. (Douyin is China's most popular video-sharing app.)
Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media

Technology, whether it comes to laptops, gadgets, or social media

each and everything has its advantages and disadvantages.
Everything depends on how we utilize it. Either we are using it
positively or not. It is we who have to decide about how much time
we have to spend on social media so that our work doesn’t
hamper. We have to set a specific time limit for the proper usage
of social media because technology cannot replace anyone in our
lives. If we look at social media statistics, one user is spending an
average of 3 hours per day on social networks and messaging
(Source: GlobalWebIndex, 2019).

Advantages of social media in society.

1. Connectivity

One of the most important advantages of social media is

connectivity. It can connect innumerable users from any place at
any time. Through social media and its connectivity, the
information could be shared across the world, and building
relationships with each other also become easy. It leads to
worldwide connections.

Social media creates a feeling of closeness and bond amongst

each other.

2. Education

Social media has proved beneficial in the field of education. It

makes learning easier by connecting educators and experts all
over the world with the learners. It also helps in improving skills
by enhancing knowledge and creativity. It creates flexibility in the
learning process where learners and educators can connect at
their own pace of time.

3. Information and Updates

Through social media, you could keep yourself updated with the
information about any happenings in the world or in someone’s
life. Apart from television, radio, or newspapers, social media
helps you to provide correct information by showing the true
picture of contents and resources. It helps in showcasing the real-
world globally.

4. Awareness

Social media creates awareness in the minds of people. It acts as

a medium of information that helps people to do innovations and
achieve success through the enhancement of skills and
knowledge. Social media has made all people aware of
happenings around the world.

5. Share Anything with Others

Social media is the best platform to post anything you feel like. Be
it a song, a poem, an artistic creation, a tempting dessert recipe,
and much more. It enhances and showcases the creativity of a
person and helps in reaching it out to millions of users. You never
know by sharing your artistic creations can pave the way for your
success.

6. Helps in Building Communities

We all are living in a diverse world where there exist different

types of people, i.e., from different communities, religions, and
diverse backgrounds. Social media helps in the unification of
people by connecting them through the same platform. It helps to
build relationships among communities by creating a feeling of
oneness. For instance, foodies can join the food blogger
community, and game lovers can join communities related to
games, and so on.

7. Noble Cause

Social media is used as a platform for noble deeds. For instance,

providing donations or funds to the people who are suffering from
cancer or thalassemia and are in need of funds to cure it, social
media is the best way to promote. Many people use it to help such
people who are in need of funds. It is the easiest and quickest to
promote a noble cause.

8. Mental Health

Social media acts as a great stress buster or mental health

reliever by connecting to various people across the world and
building positive relationships with them.

There are various groups in social media, and you can come
across many people who may help you to fight with stress issues,
depression, and isolation. It can build healthy relations with
people by generating positive vibes and a happier mood. It
improves mental well-being.

Advantages of Social Media for Business

1. Brand Reputation

Social media has helped in increasing business rapport by

building goodwill amongst people, and its promotion leads to an
increase in sales, thereby increasing profits. Businesses get great
help from the reviews and comments given by the users. Many
business firms have increased revenue just because of social
media and because of the likes it received from the users.

2. Brand Awareness

Social media helps in increasing brand awareness. Eye-catching

products and content definitely steal the attention of users
through which brand visibility is increased, leading to an increase
in awareness by making consumers aware of certain products and
services.
3. Customer Interaction

Social media helps in improving customer interaction by delivering

the products and services and getting feedback on the same.
Different types of users will provide varied comments and reviews,
which would help in improving the areas you need to work on to
provide customer satisfaction.

4. Promotion

Social media acts as a great promoter in the field of online

business and marketing. It also serves as a medium to post
anything which leads to promotion and paves the way to success.
Social media helps in promoting business profitably and
connecting with the users in the right way. It builds rapport among
users and creates goodwill for your business, which is essential
for the growth of any business.

These were some advantages of social media on society, which

has proved beneficial in one’s life.

Disadvantages of Social Media

1. Affects Social-Emotional Connection

Social media has become a hindrance in the way of social-

emotional connection. Be it the wishes on special days or
expressing one’s feelings, everything has been limited to textual
content through social media, which results in a lack of personal
feelings and connections.

Earlier people use to visit one’s place to wish them on special

days, but now they find it easier to send a text message. A
person’s emotions and feelings cannot be felt through just a text
message. So, there is a lack of connection between people
because of social media.

2. Decreases Quick-witted Skill

I would totally agree that social media has decreased real-time

face-to-face conversations with our buddies. People have started
relying on text messages by simply typing a text.

Internet users are not quick-witted; they take time to think and
then reply. It has a terrible impact on their mental health.

Can you imagine which element is missing nowadays? The

element of love, friendship, enjoyment, fun time, peace, and much
more is being missed out knowingly or unknowingly because of
the usage of social media constantly.

They can express the same feeling using write words when they
are in front of others.

3. Causing Distress to Someone’s Feelings

I really feel sad when I see people using social media as a

platform to hurt the other person. I wonder why it is so.

The unnecessary trolls, feedbacks, comments on another person’s

life makes me feel very disappointed. What is the need to do all
this? Is social media for all this? I don’t think so. You can use it
for a noble deed instead of hurting someone or giving them pain
and suffering.
Some people are not posting anything to hurt others, just sharing
their point of view, but who’s reading the content and not agree
with them may become upset or disappointed with their opinion. It
causes disputes in family, friend circle, and business.

4. Present Physically Not Mentally

When I am at my friend’s place or on an outing with them, I really

feel disheartened by seeing each one busy with their phones.

Nowadays, relationships have left behind because we are so

much engrossed in our phones that we somewhere miss that
friendship, love, and care.

It is one of the major reasons behind health issues like

depression, stress, and anxiety because we are somewhere
missing those real-time friends and interactions with them, which
we earlier used to have.

5. Lacking Understanding and Thoughtfulness

Understanding or convey a feeling through word or even a voice

ain’t possible. You need to be in front of someone to understand
what they want to say and feel about you. The same words can
communicate a different meaning until you are not able to
understand the body language and the way of speaking. Words
can express or hide the real meaning.

Social media has replaced a real-time face to face conversations.

People are busy the whole day chatting online that when they
meet the person in real-time, they are unable to understand the
feelings, emotions, love, connection with each other, etc. which
means that they are so much busy in the virtual world that they
forget everything.
Sometimes, I really feel that our forefathers were far luckier than
us in this because they were away from all these distractions and
were able to spend quality time with their loved ones and family.

6. Lack of Family Quality Time

I would personally agree to it that social media has caused

distance in relationships.

Earlier, people use to spend quality time with their family

members by sitting together, having meals together, watching
movies, having celebrations, and discussing any issues with each
other. But now, we love to spend time alone with just our phones,
and we need no one to disturb.

It has caused distance in relations with family members by

reducing that love and closeness.

The Children’s Hospital Colorado wrote a guide on how to spend

quality time with your family in their parenting section.

7. Cyberbullying

Disadvantages of social media cyberbullying

In the past few years, many people, especially children, have

become victims of cyberbullying as it is very easy nowadays to
create fake accounts and fake profiles and threaten the other
person.

Cyberbullying has resulted in many suicides, depression issues,

etc. People have started using social media as a platform to
spread fake news and rumors, which has caused an unhealthy
environment in society and the country.

You may read the negative effects of social media on teenagers.

Perhaps, you are aware of cyberstalking, i.e., Facebook stalking,

Instagram stalking, and WhatsApp stalking. Cyberstalking is
becoming the biggest threat. You should not share your personal
data on the social media platform and never accept friend
requests from strangers.

8. Hacking

Hacking is a very popular threat of social media where hackers

can easily hack a person’s account and data. It has resulted in
serious issues in one’s life.

I suggest everyone keep their privacy settings updated and their

profile locked to avoid such circumstances in life. You will have to
become smart to deal with these situations.

Here’s how to secure your Instagram account and lock your

Twitter account.

9. Distracted Mind

Whenever you wake up or go off to sleep, you have an impulse to

check your phone for notifications and messages. Social media
has caused distractions in the sense that it hampers our work and
time both. We are simply wasting our time on it.
Everyone is busy in the race to attain the maximum number of
followers on Facebook or Instagram, leaving behind their
capabilities and strength to achieve something in life.

People are talking less and texting more instead of doing

important work. They forget about the importance of daily
entertainment, refreshment, and peace of mind, students are not
submitting assignments on time, and family members are not
getting interacted with each other while living in the same home. It
finally reduces family closeness.

10. Facilitates Laziness

It is one of the major reasons for social media as a disadvantage

in our lives because sitting long hours on a couch busy using
smartphones has to lead to various health issues like fatigue,
blood pressure, obesity, stress, depression, etc.

People have become lazy due to technology usage. I would

suggest doing some physical activities like exercise, walk, yoga,
and much more instead of long duration usage to remain active
and fit. A healthy mind and a healthy soul is the need of an hour.

You should go for an outing with family and friends. It will re-
energize you.

11. Addiction Social media addiction

Social media has become an addiction, especially for youth. They

are spending their whole day with their smartphones. This
addiction has ruined their lives leading to serious issues.
Using something is not bad, but getting addicted to it can be
disastrous. People waste their productive time and energy both on
it. It is time to focus on studies, but teenagers spend their
productive time the whole day on social media.

Suppose, your ward is doing the same then recommend him/her

social media detox.

12. Cheating and Relationship Issues

People have started using social media as a platform to find their

better half and get married to them. But after a few years, it may
lead to unhealthy relationships or even divorce just because they
have given incorrect information about each other. It can ruin their
whole life by cheating on each other. It can also lead to
infatuation among teens, which can distract their minds and
provoke them to do something wrong.

Conclusion – Disadvantages of Social Media

Coming to a conclusion, if we look at the disadvantages of social

media, excessive use can lead to poor health, weak physique,
depression, stress, anxiety, and even deaths. Set a proper time
for its proper utilization, which doesn’t lead to unproductive work.
By reducing the number of hours on social media, you can get rid
of these problems. Instead of using social media for hours, you
can spend some time in other activities. According to research,
the only social network used among youth is Instagram, up from
64% to 66% in the past two years.

Conclusion

The advantages and disadvantages of social media can’t be

denied. It is fully up to the users how they use it smartly and
actively. I hope everybody would like to get the benefits derived
from social media, and no one would like to become a victim of it
by continuously addicting to it. Now, it is your task to think and
decide whether social media is good or bad for you? And if you
feel that social media is coming in between your personal space,
then I would suggest you take a break from it. After all, when you
correctly use something, then it fails to hamper your work or life;
instead, it productively enhances your life by a creative, healthy
environment and inculcating positivity around.

While using social media, we usually accept offers and put our
personal data in front of them. That may be not a good practice,
even sharing status may leak our privacy. So it may be a security
issue for our personal info as well as our own. So that should be
avoided to become safe during social media usage because
people usually hide their identities to victimize common people.

3-Fake News:

One of the challenging tasks that social media is facing today is

the spread of fake news. Although most of the information is from
reliable resources still we need to verify it before forwarding it.

It is the need of time that the authority should take notice of the
spread of fake news from unauthentic sources. So that the real
info may be shared among the people.

4-Divert attention:

Nowadays it is time to use social media on the go, for this every
social media has launched apps to use them conveniently. So
people become so addicted that attention to other important work
even studies affect badly. Online games and other unnecessary
entertainment have made the young generation addicted. Even
excessive use will make them mentally sick.

5-Scams and Frauds:

Social media can be a place of scams and frauds, especially
anyone who can make a profile with a similar name to you to
misguide your friends and family. There are many people that are
in search of innocent persons, they give them attractive business
opportunities but pay nothing other than making financial fraud
with them. Similarly, people especially young ones in search of
friendship and marriage are also facing issues without knowing
their family backgrounds.

6-Privacy Issues:

One of the major disadvantages of social media is the privacy

issue. Millions of people are using social media for fun and info,
but they don’t know that they are paying for that. Social media
collects people’s info, and their interests and may share them with
advertisers. Also due to smartphone technology, there are apps
for every business. So people installed them and they may
compromise our personal phone info. So be aware before
installing and using apps on your smartphones.

7-Decline of Offline Communication:

There was a time when people prefer to meet and discuss their
problems physically. After the innovations of social media, the
distance between the people in this busy life becomes more. Now,
people especially the young do not bother to talk while using
social media in their hands. It has become practice, that people
are sitting beside but with no awareness of the other person’s
presence.

8-Impact on Health:

Excessive usage of social media may affect our health badly.

Being addicted to unnecessary info and entertainment, our sleep
cycle is disturbed which may bring an unhealthy sign to our brain
and alternatively routine life. Moreover, sitting in one place will
also make us lazy, and without physical movement we may
become sick.
9-Relationship Issues:

Most people are using social media for fun and entertainment, for
this making friends and relations is common. But a platform where
no correct info about another person may bring issues in their
relationship. Since it is very common, so we should avoid such a
relationship.

10-Unwanted Targets and Races:

One of the disadvantages of social media is that People start to

idealize some people. For this, they start making ineffective
efforts to have more followers and friends. They start sharing their
thoughts in form of videos. By doing this kind of unwanted race
they usually want to be like that person that may be practically not
possible. So we should avoid fixing such unwanted targets.

Conclusion:

Since the advantages and disadvantages of Social media are

dependent on its needs and availability, so many nations and
countries have used it to promote their business and for the
betterment of society. Although not every news, information is
useful for us, because there is much fake or just time-wasting info
that is surely not as good as it may be.

Co-author: Manpreet Kaur, Educationist

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6 thoughts on “Top 20+ Advantages and Disadvantages of Social
Media”

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MOJGAN

OCT 25, 2021 AT 20:26

It was great. Thanks.

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HENY

MAY 20, 2022 AT 14:45

It was helpful, thanks 😊

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FATIMA

AUG 6, 2022 AT 18:17

It was really good and helpful for me, thank you for the effort you
put into this essay

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IQRA

SEP 19, 2022 AT 16:02