Most people around the world use social media every day to keep in touch with other people and news events. Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantage?

With the virtual
world
connecting people more than ever, it becomes hard to notice the disadvantages of living in it.
However
, The virtual
world
is illusory and creates the impression of protection and stability, but only real-
world
interaction can give us true peace and confidence. Admittedly, social networking reduces distances. At the moment, we can communicate in real-time with people thousands of kilometres away, creating connections and friendships.
In addition
, the news is more at our disposal and we can be up to date with any event whenever we want,
such
as the latest scientific inventions, the most popular commodities or the recent eye-catching lawsuits.
However
, when living in a virtual
world
, we are actually creating an artificial environment that we confuse with the real one. First of all, in
this
new
world
of virtual communications, we still express ourselves in real-
world
ways that don’t always work in
this
special context. Examples can be seen when we sent an email or a text meaning one thing but the recipient took it in a completely different way.
This
is because online interaction lacks the emotions conveyed by our happy smiles, concerning looks or the tender touch of our hand.
Secondly
, with the internet turning into an impressive power, many people have started to utilize it as a real source of income, promoting all kinds of fake news in exchange for earnings and increasing the energy consumed in filtering the noise. What’s worse, content-based algorithms are creating a ‘bubble’ where individuals got fed more of the same thing based on past searches or comments.
Consequently
, by filtering out what the algorithms believe to be unattractive to their
users
, the social media platforms are in fact narrowing what the
users
could know. In conclusion, it seems that social media is opening lots of doors for its
users
.
However
, they are losing the insights, serendipity and surprises that early web
users
experienced before algorithms.
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Topic Vocabulary:
  • global village
  • real-time communication
  • cyberbullying
  • digital marketing
  • networking
  • data breach
  • misinformation
  • social media platforms
  • user engagement
  • privacy settings
  • sedentary lifestyle
  • screen time
  • virtual relationships
  • infodemic
  • echo chamber
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