Social Media Is Becoming Increasingly Popular Amongst All Age Groups

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Sample essay

Nowadays, almost everyone is on one social networking site or another. Some people believe that there are a few downsides to posting personal details on social networking platforms. In my opinion, this is true to a great extent and I do not believe that the benefits of using social media eclipse the drawbacks.

Social media is a great platform to connect with friends and family. It enables people to trace long lost friends and stay in constant touch with family. This is a boon for people living away from their near and dear ones. Social media also enables like minded people to form virtual communities where they can share their interests, post their opinions and work together for their favourite causes. For business savvy people, social media is a great platform to find new customers and promote their products.

On the downside, social media has plenty of negative aspects. Over the years, it has become platform to show off. Now many people are only using it to brag about their achievements. They post photos of their expensive acquisitions and exotic vacations on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. This can make their less privileged friends and acquaintances feel bad about their existence. Another downside of using social media platforms is that people are indiscriminately posting their personal information online oblivious to the fact that it can be stolen and misused. For example, when traveling people use geo-tagging applications to advertise their current location, they increase the risk of their home getting burgled. Personal photos posted online can also be misused and sometimes the consequences can be disastrous. Oftentimes social media companies themselves sell user data for making a profit. Social media has also been instrumental in breaking many homes.

In short, social media is a great platform to connect with people only when it is used for its intended purpose. Unfortunately, these days, for many people it is merely a platform to boast of their achievements real and imaginary and for others it is a goldmine of personal data that they can exploit. Hence, in my opinion, the downsides of social media outweigh the upsides.