Does Social Media Have a Positive Effect on Viewers?

Have you ever had a rough day at work, counting down the minutes until you can leave and get home to your bed? Me too. Now, have you gotten home, to lie down and scroll through all your apps as the time passes, and before you know it, you’ve escaped into a world you have curated via your algorithm? Yes, same. As we scroll, we get small spikes of dopamine, which make us keep scrolling to get that rush as much as we can. But more than dopamine, it’s changing how people consume, learn, and stay informed.

I like to think of social media as a helpful medium where we learn so much from people every day. I can’t count how many times I’ve found a life hack or recipes to save for later. People aren’t just using social media to keep up with personal friends; they are building online communities, influencing, and sharing their creative gifts with the world.

Building online communities is very prevalent in today’s time because there are so many ventures people are interested in, and now you can find a community on Facebook where you talk with one another and create lasting friendships, whether strictly online or translating to real life. It has also been a catalyst for active problem-solving and investigating, much like what conspired in the Netflix documentary Don’t F*ck With Cats.

This documentary captured my attention because it went viral online for the amazing amateur investigative skills of a Facebook group of cat lovers attempting to find the person abusing cats and posting the videos online. Through this, they strengthened their bonds through the love of cats while actively solving an issue important to them and so many others. They were also able to solve a mystery that authorities could not seem to solve.

As I continue to use social media, I not only look for silly videos to laugh at (although they are great), but I intentionally find spaces, creatives, and pages that are related to what I like, hobbies, and ventures I am interested in. Social media has been the catalyst for change, and as the medium grows, we continue to acknowledge that and grow with it. So to answer the question at the beginning of the article, yes, social media can have a positive effect on us, especially if we are actively seeking it out.