Over the past 20 years, the technology of information and communication has undergone rapid change, with the emergence of social media being one of the most significant developments. Social media serves as a platform for sharing information, ideas, and interacting with people around the world. Its popularity continues to grow every day, affecting the world in a multitude of ways.

The impact of social media undeniably can be seen in all aspects of our society. It allows sharing as well as expressing our opinions on a broader platform. Social media includes Facebook, Instagram, twitter etc and our society, mostly the youth are so much into it that sometimes they forget to use social media to their own benefit, rather gets addicted to it which impacts their whole life, be it their mental health, career, family etc. In today’s world, social media impacts our social, cultural, political, spiritual, economical spheres of life in both positive and in a negative way.

I want to share some data related to the use of social media:

· The average time spent by a person on social media is 1.72 hours.

· For the teenagers, its shocking that the time spent is 27 hours per week

Undoubtedly, social media and its use has made our life much simpler by making communication or sharing information so easy and quick that we can’t even think our life without it.

Let us discuss some of its positive as well as negative effects of social media on youth. Firstly, lets go through the positive impact of social media on different aspects of the society:

EDUCATIONAL ASPECT

With the use of social media, now education has become quite accessible to all. Through social networking sites, teachers could easily collaborate with students. It is now easier than ever to share information and access valuable study resources. Videos and lectures are available in abundance in social networking sites and the youths can easily get access to information based on any topic.

By providing students with the opportunity to learn and then implement the same themselves, social media helps boost creative skills in students. It is quite common for a student's hidden talent to be revealed when he or she begins taking pictures and using online editing software to make them appear aesthetically pleasing. There are a great deal of students who have interesting hobbies that they post online via videos and photos, which helps them realize their potential for making it their profession.

POLITICAL ASPECT

It's social media that brings about change in politics. Social networking gives the social movement cheap and quick ways to spread information and bring people together.

Social evils and mal practices can easily be brought into the attention of jurisdiction and can be easily solved. We have seen multiple cases where social media has played an important role in getting the right person justice. Many campaigns and protests can be carried out easily through social media. It also allows an individual to bring up their own perspective towards the event, campaign or protest and share it with innumerable people.

SOCIAL ASPECT

Through social media, people are able to communicate with friends and this enhanced communication online strengthens their relationship. According to a survey, 52% of teens who remain online say social media has facilitated their friendships, and 88% say they have been able to stay in touch with friends who they do not see on a regular basis

As stated earlier, young people have a natural tendency to make new friends. Social media plays an important role in the development of new friendships among teens who remain online. There wouldn't be much visibility for social, ethical, environmental, or political ills without social media. There's been a shift in power from a few to the masses due to increased visibility of issues.

ECONOMIC ASPECT

Sharing your business ideas and multiple vlogging and shoots have now become a norm in increasing profits in a business. Social media not just helps small scale businesses but also large-scale business to reach new heights and increase their marginal profits to a great extent. Customer feedback allows innovation and product improvement. It increases employee productivity.

Youths are able to develop many skills through social media, thus, creating a profound effect on recruitment and hiring and ultimately increased productivity and sale. One could also easily advertise their products through countless methods available on social networking sites.

Let us now consider the negative impacts of social media on young minds:

· Cyber crime is increasing day by day and everyday a good number of people are getting trapped in cyber crimes. Misinformation, bullying someone on social media, sending intimidating messages or videos are some of the greatest negative impacts of social media on youth.

· Spending more time on social media adversely affects our mental health, resulting in memory loss, low IQ, etc. In addition to affecting our eyesight, social media can also contribute to migraine headaches. Youths are easily persuaded by the happy and glamorous life in the social media thus leading to a low level of self-confidence, self-doubting and depression.

· Social media impacts not just youth but also children which easily get addicted to porn sites or adult shows which are easily available all-over social media. Explicit themes have now available everywhere, even in child friendly shows which ultimately affects their wellbeing, mental health, perspective towards their life.

· The use of social media affects our day-to-day communication skills, as we become accustomed to communicating via keyboard, thereby reducing our responding skills.

· The social media conversation of today is filled with exclamations such as "haha", "LOL", and other expressions intended to indicate laughter. Shorthand like this has become second nature and is often used when the sender is not even smiling, much less laughing. Not only laughter or smiling, these exclamations are used to convey many other emotions without even feeling the same emotion which is being sent by the user.

· The use of social media also contributes to laziness. Gone are the days when friends use to gather in one place and had fun together without posting anything or vlogging. Many rituals or worships or say it family gatherings are often taking place through social media and there is no face-to-face communication or interaction. Miss all those days where we used to die to meet our family members and pour our heart out in face-to-face conversations where we could naturally feel the vibe, the emotions which could be seen in one’s face.

· The impact of social media is spine chilling when you realize that it diminishes thoughtfulness and understanding which is the very essence of communication and connecting with one other.

· Another scary impact seen in youths is that they are being out rooted from their spiritual and religious existence. Social media impacts our thought in such a way that we are unable to recognize or realize our true purpose of life or our final motto of life. Each one of us is running the rat race of getting some extra likes and followers without even realizing that in search of fame and glamour, we are losing our individuality, our purpose in life, our religious and spiritual sentiments.

· Social media impacts our character traits to a great extent. The use of social media to a great extent has cost us our social behavior. Our empathy or deep concern towards others have diminished severely. Helping others has now become a strategy to get n number of followers and likes. Empathy or kindness is a trait which should come from inside and should not be a path to promote yourself on social media.

The Impact of Social Media on Youth