In the past decade, we’ve seen social media rise to critical mass. It has become a crucial part of this era of society. Although social media has opened up so many doors for people all across the world to interact with people they may never meet in real life or have conversations they may never have had. However, as it ages, social media is proving to have impacts on the health of individuals and their lifestyle.

Social media has a had many impacts specifically on individual health both mental and physical.

One of the most prevalent issues with social media is addiction. While according to Forbes, some scientists are on the fence as to whether social media addiction is a real condition there is strong evidence proving that it indeed real. In my opinion, any type of behavior or activity can become addictive. In today’s day and age, people are beginning to rely on social media and their cell phones in general.

According to the New York Post, a study has shown that on average, Americans check their phones 80 times a day which adds up to checking their phone every 12 minutes. Social media addiction, if it is considered to be a real issue, can not only be detrimental to an individuals lifestyle but can also be detrimental to productivity in the workplace or school. It is obvious that people spend a lot of time using social media, but whether it is causing addiction in the clinical sense of the word, I’ll leave that up to the scientists and doctors.

Another interesting conundrum regarding social media is that it could be inhibiting real-world interactions and connections. However on the flip-side of this is that people are interacting extensively on social media. This may not be a substantial concern for older users who started using social media later in their life, but could be a concern for children who have grown up using social media.

As someone who is a minimal user of social media, it is, personally, hard to tell whether these impacts are actually happening. The positives of social media are so tremendous and the negatives of social media are also so tremendous, it is hard to speak in the present about how it will affect everything because it is still all so new. It is our responsibility as a society to take responsibility and be aware of the impacts of social media and the evergrowing landscape of modern technology as a whole.