Social Media Should be Limited
Cici Ramdiyatul Fajriyah¹, Wasyatul Mawaddah², Wazan Aulia Sabilal³, Imam Rizaldi H³
English Student Study Program, State Islamic University of Mataram
Imagine when you are scrolling social media, only consuming short content with different genre without even realize you spend so many times in vain and so many productive activities has delayed. This fenomena has become something normal in society. In first, social media has been created to make communication easier, but now social media become unlimited entertainment platform where so many people especially young people stuck in this fenomena. As a result, they have trouble focusing even some of them experience mental issue due to excessive exposure to social media. Therefore, the use of social media should be limited because it can cause addiction, interfere with productivity, and has a negative impact on the mental and social health of its users.
One of the strongest arguments for limiting social media use is its significant detrimental impact on mental health, especially among adolescents and young adults. Constant exposure to th ne curated, often unrealistic, self-images on platforms like Instagram and TikTok fuels anxiety and depression through intense social comparison mechanisms (Primack et al., 2017). Studies have demonstrated a clear correlation between the time spent on these sites and increased feelings of loneliness, isolation, and decreased self-esteem (Preventive Medicine, 2017). Furthermore, the very design of these platforms using notifications, likes, and infinite scrolling psychologically exploits the brain's reward system, leading to damaging addiction, reducing sleep quality, and distracting from real-life focus (O'Keeffe, 2011). Therefore, enforced time limits or platform features that promote digital breaks are essential tools to mitigate these serious psychological triggers.
Another crucial reason to regulate social media operations is the profound threat they pose to user data privacy and security. The business model of these platforms relies heavily on the massive collection of personal data to target advertising. This practice often involves opaque and non-transparent privacy infringements, allowing corporations to track nearly every online and offline user interaction (Zuboff, 2017). When this sensitive data is centrally stored, it becomes a prime target for cyberattacks and data breaches, putting users' financial and personal information at serious risk moreover, the lack of strict data-sharing regulations enables the spread of misinformation and psychological manipulation, as demonstrated in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which showed how user data could be weaponized to influence political processes. Therefore, stricter limits, particularly concerning how companies collect, store, and monetize user data, are vital for protecting individual digital rights.
So, it is crucial to limit your social media use to avoid addiction, stay productive, and maintain your mental health. We must choose our time and content wisely so that social media remains beneficial, not detrimental.
REFERENCES
Clarke-Pearson O'Keeffe, C.-P. (2011). [PDF] The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families by Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, Kathleen OA.mg. 10.1542/peds.2011-0054 https://oa.mg/work/10.1542/peds.2011-0054
Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Sidani, J. E., Whaite, E. O., Lin, L. yi, Rosen, D., Colditz, J. B., Radovic, A. M., & Miller, E. (2017). Social Media Use and Perceived Social Isolation Among Young Adults in the U.S. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 53(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2017.01.010
Zuboff, S. (2017). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/shoshana-zuboff/the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism/9781610395700/?lens=publicaffairs
