Use of Social Media and its Detrimental Impact on People's Relationships

The registered users of social media websites are more than 1 billion and in 2016, Facebook alone had over 1. billion active users per month. Out of this number, 1. billion were active daily users out of which about 94% or 1. billion of these active daily users accessed Facebook using mobile devices (Jinyoung, 2017). Excessive use of websites exposes users to depression and anxiety. Through social media youngsters discuss their problems with friends and some discussions criticize individuals which trigger depression and anxiety in them. A new phenomenon, ‘Facebook depression’ defines depression inflicting individuals who spend excess time on Facebook and other websites. Individuals experiencing Facebook depression and anxiety are isolated and in search of help, they access wrong internet sites linking with self-destructive behaviors like drug and alcohol abuse and abusive sexual practices etc. A study in the United States by a Michigan State University psychologist established a 70% increase in depressive symptoms and also a 42% increase in social anxiety among users of social media websites (Amedie, 2015).

A negative comment posted on social media about an organization may change the perception of fans resulting in its failure. Organizations have also been hacked by criminals using social media and on some occasions, wrong brand strategies on companies have been posted online creating social disadvantages to the organization (Siddiqui and Singh, 2016). The social media websites expose children and youth to sexual exploitation by adults or even other youth mostly through contact to harmful material like pornography, sexual conversations, manipulation to pose naked and luring children for offline meetings to in order to sexually exploit them. Other online risky exposures to children and young people include theft of personal information, physical harm to other people when enacting video content, kidnappings, murders and at times irreconcilable differences between children and parents which prompt children to desert home joining criminal gangs.

Social media has become a tool for illegal acts by criminals, predators and terrorists with its websites being often used irresponsibly to commit crimes like cyberbullying, drug dealing and cyber terrorism. As evidence to such incidences, a Pew survey revealed, 32% of websites users had contacts with online strangers and 23% of them including 7% of teenagers felt scared and uncomfortable of such encounters. Terrorists use social media to collect information, recruit members, fundraise and spread propaganda, hence the reason why terrorism is not restricted to Muslim-majority countries but is a global phenomenon. In mid-1990s terrorist groups had 12 terrorist websites for criminal activities which have since increased to 9,800 websites especially after 9/11, when many of groups like Jihadist movements and al-Qaida begun using cyberspace (Amedie, 2015). Cyberterrorism can also disrupt a nation’s economy as well as security as was the case in April 2013 when a Syrian Electronic Army hacked Associated Press's Twitter account and posted a false message to millions of AP's Twitter readers stating, "Breaking News: two explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.

Minutes later, the stock market tumbled as New York Stock Exchange dropped by $136 billion dollars (Amedie, 2015). Siddiqui, S. and Singh, T. Social Media its Impact with Positive and Negative Aspects. International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and Research Volume 5– Issue 2, 71 - 75, 2016, ISSN:- 2319–8656. Mats University Raipur (C.