We interviewed Ragnheiður school psychologist and we are going to say what she mentioned. She thinks social media have many good benefits but also cons that people need to be aware of. The disadvantages are that through social media, ways are opened up for people who want to be mistaken for sources or pretend to be someone else, cheating, annoying or harassing people but at the same time this is a good tool for connecting people and this is very good information sharing, information is received very quickly and widely, therefore it thinks people spend too much time on social media or use it negatively and use it so much that it stops sleeping well, stops interacting with people in real life or begin to compare too much with others. If people go the middle way then this can only be good and useful.
If the social media that we use today would fall out, then people would use other ways such as when social media didn't exist, then people used landlines, emails, in the old days’ people used letter writing so we would totally find other ways.
Social media has changed a lot and very fast, supply and diversity have increased greatly. When Ragnheiður was in her youth department, she first became acquainted with the Internet and all mobile phones were only used for calls and SMS, did not have cameras and were not connected to the Internet.
Ragnheiður uses social media every day, mostly to communicate with friends and family both in Iceland and abroad, if the social media were not there then she would be in less communication with her friends abroad but also use them to be in communication that revolves, around with her children and others.
The younger the people, the more good and the bad, everyone can be affected, everyone can, for example, get cyberbullyied, personal attacks or people are sharing information whether in pictures or other than older people are more prepared like this.
The positive effects of social media are the connection between people and the flow of information, the good thing is that it can squeeze people in trouble, can form solidarity with fundraisers, good causes, find someone who is lost or find someone who is connected to police matters, then it can work well. for people to get their information and stand together.
Adults use Facebook and Twitter the most, but teenagers are more on Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.
Facebook and Instagram have the most impact on people because people often post on Instagram and Facebook as well called "glossy pictures" of reality and many are comparing what they see there but like with Facebook that they read in what people are googling and what people are doing, and showing you ads and news related to your area or interests. It means that it can affect people and shape their views and attitudes and it only sees what Facebook wants to show you, you look monotonous and the attitude can be distorted by it.
We will see in the future how much impact they have and on who they are, but it is not a question that our attitudes, ideas about ourselves, ideas about the world and ideas about others are all shaped by the use of social media and the effects are most social and spiritual, both good and bad, sometimes they somehow damage our self-image by negatively affecting ideas we have about ourselves, causing anxiety or increasing distress so that the effects are present socially and spiritually but in the future, we will see this more scientifically what is going on.
