Social Media can be used in numerous ways and for several different purposes. Although there has been a lot of talk about the detriments of social media, it can be used in ways that are beneficial for users as well. This section takes a look at the positives of social media.
Social media can provide educational and beneficial online material to advise young people about health problems and experiences. This provides people who may be facing mental health problems something useful to relate to. Increasingly teachers and schools are attempting to leverage the engaging qualities of Social Media for use in the classroom and beyond - connecting students, teachers and parents better than ever before. Best Maters in Education gathered related information in the U.S. You can find relevant statistics in graph representations below:
There are also advantages for when users view posts about personal health issues, which can be helpful for young people for their own personal issues (Jina Huh, 2014). This can guide them on how to overcome the challenges they may be facing and people will begin to realize and have a better understanding of their circumstances, how to overcome them and crucially be directed towards making the best choices based on their conditions. Social media has also been known to provide emotional aid. This means that youngsters regularly look to social media for assistance with emotional issues they may be facing and it can present opportunities for users to discuss and assist others with necessary information that may be used to defeat similar problems. This is essential because individuals may struggle to gain such guidance in person. The results of a study by Lenhart in 2015 are shown below.
Social media also allows people from all over the world to come together and share their views so groups of people who share certain beliefs and goals may be able to interact with each other and form relationships based on their ideas (Kelly-Ann Allen, 2014). Thus, a community is created among online users where interests and even worries can be communicated. The graphic below shows the percentage of internet users worldwide who believe that Social Media has bettered their ease of communication with other people and improved their Access to Information (Statista,2019).
Because there is so much global community connected to social media constantly, news reaches people faster through social media channels. News outlets are able to break stories and alert users about important occurrences. This results in more people being aware about what is going on locally and around the world, placing them in a better situation to ensure safety and betterment of the public. People can also observe and spread news stories, including events such as global natural disasters too. The graphic below shows the percentage increase of U.S. adults who got news from social media in 2016 (62%) and 2018 (68%).