Everything in this world has a positive and negative side, no matter what the object or who the person is. I’ve learnt through my experiences that social media has two different sides that can either improve your life or destroy it within a matter of seconds. Social media is like a double-sided sword that has the power to save or harm you.

Social media has become an obsession amongst teens, both male and female equally. Teens are constantly occupied by social media by checking how many likes their post has gotten or by being drawn into the lives of celebrities and their every move. Not all people are like this but the majority are; they can’t put down their phone for at least 30 minutes as they might miss something on Snapchat or Instagram. Girls especially, when hanging out, are opting to try to take Instagram-worthy pictures and photo shoots, instead of actually talking to one another and catching up on each other’s lives. There have been many times where I was over at a friend’s house or compound where everyone asked for the Wifi password the minute they walked through the door and were on their phones the entire time. And when I brought up the idea of going outside to their garden or walking around the compound, some of my friends would simply reply, “Only if there is good lighting for pictures”. I have never been so disgusted by the actions of my social media possessed friends and now I’d rather not hang out with them as they would rather catch up on the lives of people they don’t know, than catch up with my life or my friends’ lives that they actually know. These experiences made me realize that social media can harm people and ruin their friendships; with people are choosing their phones over their friends.

Besides keeping people obsessed, social media allows people to keep connected wherever in the world they are, enabling them to talk to each other over long distances. This is why I love social media, I can talk to my best friend in Dubai and I Skype with my friend from Germany and I can keep contact with my parents when I travel alone to the UK. Through the use of the internet, I can be in contact with any of my friends around the world. Currently on Facebook, I became Facebook friends with people I went to Kindergarten with back in Doha, Qatar and because of this, we met up this year after not seeing each other for about 8 to 9 years. Social media also allows me to be in constant contact with my best friend in Dubai. We always message each other, checking up on one another, sending videos and pictures, and also video chat with one another very frequently. Without social media, I would’ve lost my friendship with her because I wouldn’t be able to talk to her and we wouldn’t be in contact with each other besides when I meet up with her in person every couple of months in Dubai.

Social media is a double-sided sword which has the power to save you or kill you, but this depends on how you use it. That is the case with almost everything in life, depending on how you use that certain object, there may be two opposite outcomes. When given a certain amount of power, humans have different reactions and ways of using that power that depends on the values and beliefs we are grown up with. I, for one, have grown up with the ideas of spending quality time with others and enjoying other’s company and being kind to one another. Others who might not have had the childhood I did, tend to use social media as a platform for bullying and as an obsession. I always try to see the good in things and people, not the bad, so when I think of social media, positive things always come to mind. I think of keeping connected, staying in contact, catching up on the lives of my friends around the world.

Next time I invite friends over or I go to a friends house, I’m going to urge them to turn off their phones, put them away in their bag, forget about them, and enjoy the company of their friends. And next time I’m online on a social media platform, I’m going to talk to someone I haven’t seen in many years and catch up on their life so I can still stay connected with them. The double-sided sword of social media can be safe and not harm you when used with good intentions.