The influence of social networks in everyday life
Much of the day we use the cell phone or the computer to talk through the networks and, even when we put them aside, we are aware of the calls, messages, and multiple applications they have. For studies, this generates addictive behavior. Various studies analyze the positive and negative repercussions that the use and abuse of new technologies are producing today. Through these, today we have become familiar with social networks and the Internet, using terms such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, SMS, e-mail, or Skype. All of them are associated with the widespread use of computers, tablets, and mobile phone devices that are increasingly sophisticated. These enable instantaneous interpersonal communications, making them effective in the same way as if the interlocutors were together, even though they were thousands of kilometers away. At present, talking about the development of technology is a topic that is rooted in our daily lives. These are providing great knowledge and information to people and are allowing greater well-being and progress in society. Technologies today disseminate global information that is modifying and influencing people’s public and private lives.
They enable communication to occur instantly, without being conditioned by time and geographical distances. Throughout the world, people communicate through computer and technological networks and equipment that enable universal access to information and the development of collaboration and relationships between people and organizations around the world. Through the Internet, they are handling a multiplicity of information, with which they communicate in an easy and flexible way, without requiring us to move from the places where we are, nor do we depend on time to get a response or a broadcast on the information.
Social networks produce, throughout the world, a multiplicity of social relations is achieved that would not occur otherwise. The communication established by social networks and the Internet erase the physical and real distance between people, as well as face-to-face personal interaction. A simple call through Facebook or Twitter allows hundreds or thousands of people to meet, without having previously seen each other in person. But today’s common use of technologies and social networks also has its negative side, since it is generating excessive use of them. Today, we spend a large part of the day using our cell phones or computers to talk through the networks and, even when we put them aside, we are aware of calls, messages, and the multiple applications they have.
Avoid the negative effects of social media
The use of social networks is one of the great milestones in the development of technology and current connectivity. They are tools that allow closeness and information within everyone’s reach. However, there are factors that affect its good use.
Every time a technological advance comes into our lives, critics appear who assure that instead of improving the day-to-day, it affects it. For example, when television came to homes, there was fear about the effects it would cause because people would spend a lot of time watching the screen and stop reading to the point of being stupid.
They can be enemies of concentration
The fact of having an infinite amount of information at hand all the time can present failures in the concentration of people since the activities they carry out on a daily basis such as studying, working, or talking with their relatives are constantly interrupted by the use of cell phones.
Research reveals that even having your cell phone nearby while doing any task can decrease concentration without having to touch the device. This is because the brain is constantly evaluating the possibilities and, having so many, the head leans towards what it can or wants to do and not what it should, which is the task in front of it.
Anxiety for a perfect life
People share a portion of life on social networks, their trips, food, new things, friends, and family. This is not bad, but the proliferation of content in certain profiles with greater popularity creates a tension in the brain that works as its own claim for not having the life that is shown in the publications of others and for not having the approval (translated in likes) from their environment.
This produces tension due to the desire to have a more “instagrammable” life and can trigger depression.
Can a brand help avoid this?
Brands seek to have a digital presence and create a sustained relationship with their users. This means making efforts to maintain an interest on your part in knowing what your followers say and how they think. The natural contents are the ones that help the most to mitigate the effects.
These contents are those that are attached to the real life of the users, that is, they make use of everyday life to speak in a more real way, without requiring people to fit into stereotypes that affect their mental health and that allow the use of networks are a space for growth and connection, instead of a platform to compare and compete with other profiles.
