Letter to the Editor: The powers of social media

r Statica found 68 percent of the world uses social media, providing opportunities for marketers to reach potential customers as well as for people to share talents and stay connected with friends and family. Social media can also be a trap for superficiality, breeding negativity and hindering face-to-face interactions.rPeople post to make others jealous, people get jealous and people make themselves look different on social media than in reality. A cycle is created where envy drives someone to share a post to make themselves appear better off than they really are. This can cause the growth of envy in another person, and the cycle continues.rWhat starts this cycle? The positive or negative emotions of billions of users with biased opinions, personal experiences or misinformation. For example, people have posted negative comments about the Brigham Young University football season, saying BYU has fallen below expectations and shouldn’t be excited about a bowl game. These opinions cause anger instead of happiness for the success of the BYU program.rAs you can see, it’s much easier to communicate with others via thumb then tongue. This builds a wall that decreases the quality of genuine face-to-face interactions. Why? It is simply easier. It allows a person to hide or expose who they really are.rTo conclude, social media can be a great tool to share anything with anyone; however, it creates a cycle opening the door to share opinions and experiences but closes the door for quality face-to-face interactions.

Nathan Larsen

Provo