Its difficult toimagine a world without social media. After all, its where we spend on averagefive years and four months of our lifetime. There are 3.397 billion active social media users on this planet. Onaverage, people have 5.54 social media accounts. The average daily time spent on social mediaper person is 2 hours a day and could beup to 9 hours for teenagers.

Social media has becomemore than just a place where we connect. Its where we share photos, where weget our news, where we go to be validated, and where we go to get ourvoices heard. Its also where were told what to buy, and even what to believe.

But its impact on ourwellbeing is just starting to surface. An entire generation Generation Z, oriGen, as its sometimes called is growing up under the influence of socialmedia. Theyre spending significantly less time at in-person social activities than previousgenerations. Studies have shown that the more time teens spend on social media,the higher their risk of being unhappy, developing depressive symptoms andanxiety, as well as loneliness.

The impact of socialmedia on mental health is not restricted to teenagers. 210 million people are estimated to suffer from social media and internetaddiction. Its a destructive behavior that has been likened to drug use and demonstrated to cause impaired decision-making.

How can we make socialmedia the connector it was meant to be without all the harmful side-effects?

The anatomy of words.And the effects of social media on our language

There was a time whenbeing social meant physically interacting with human beings, whether itwas playing sports, getting together with friends or having dinner with yourfamily.

Today, it seems thatface-to-face interaction is being traded for device interaction. Instead ofgenuine, real-life connections, we clamber for likes, claps, upvotes, shares,follows, and comments.

The word friendis now used more as a verb than a noun friending someone is somethingthat you do, often without thinking, with the push of a button.

And then theres theword like. It has become a measure of worth in business as well associal circles. Now, a like is something we count, something thatincreases our value. Just as we friend with a single click, we often likewithout much thought.

The effects of social media on our behavior the good and the bad

It would be unfair to talkabout social media without acknowledging its positive effects.

With the help of socialmedia, weve been able to raise awareness about important topics that wereseldom talked about before. Social media has been instrumental in movementslike Black Lives Matter, MeToo, among others, and in helping to mobilize rescueefforts and community support for disaster relief. It has allowed us to stay intouch with friends and relatives, introduced new marketing channels forbusinesses, aided us in finding jobs, and enhanced our social experience inmany other ways.

Where did we go wrong?

Social media began as afast and easy way to connect with others, and as it evolved, it became avehicle for our voices, a way to get our message across, a platform to promoteproducts and services, etc. Pretty quickly though, things started to go wrong.

As social media startedgathering data on us, they built psychological profiles on what we like anddislike. The advertisers learned that outragegot peoples attention and made them share. But more importantly, they knowwhat outrages each of us individually and as groups. Trolls, bots andalgorithms were created to feed the outrage machine.

The result is social media has negativelyimpacted our ability to deeply connect with other people in real life. Many ofus lack the social intelligence and social skills that enable us to communicate our thoughts andfeelings, and as a result, our relationships suffer.

Weve changed in endless ways, but now its timeto reassert control over our minds and our online wellbeing.

The Revolution

Around 2014, people beganto question the ethics of social media platforms, along with the ad-drivenbusiness model, also known as the Stalker Economy or Surveillance Capitalism.

The Cambridge Analytica Scandal was just the beginning of a growing publicdiscontent that we now call techlash (a term coined by the Economist in 2017).A quiet revolution has begun in an effort to hold BigTech players like Facebookaccountable for the negative effects that have become difficult to overlook.

Weve been told by ex-leaders and supporters of big tech companies thatcontinuing to use certain free services is dangerous not only because ofcountless data breaches and the threat to your psychological wellbeing but alsofor the health of our democratic societies.

The good news is, amovement is underway. People are demanding alternative solutions, and legislationlike GDPR and CCPA are meant to give us control over our identities online. Privacyis a human right in our digital world, as well as our physical one.

By reasserting ourrights online, just maybe, we can get back to a world where social media is onceagain a vehicle for meaningful connection and leave the toxicity behind.

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From Evolution to Revolution - Thrive Global