Ambivalent attitudes towards social media

Abstract

The use of social media (SM) is prevalent not only in private, but also in professional areas, and its overall involvement in our lives has grown immensely over the past decade. According to Bishop (2018), this is a phenomenon unlike anything seen throughout history. Previous studies on SM have analysed this subject unilaterally – giving greater emphasis to the positive or negative impact on its users. This novel article analyses the problem of the co-existence of opposing emotions towards SM based on the example of Facebook. Data from 274 young respondents (since teenagers and young adults spend on average 2–3 hours a day connected to SM sites, more so than other groups) (Healey, 2017), were collected on various areas of SM usage perception. The results present the existence of ambivalent attitudes towards Facebook threefold: as a place for building relationships, as a source of knowledge about the life of friends, and as a source of information. The article raises doubt as to what extent SM has an impact on their users in the future. The issue of SM affecting the user (no matter their age) generally focuses on the negative aspects (SM are being blamed for increasing mental health problems among young people) (Girl Effect team, 2018); therefore, the fidings here suggest that a balanced perspective is required, also including some positive aspects.