Friendship

I believe that different networking sites all have their pros and cons. For example, Facebook may be beneficial for staying connected to family and friends, however a potential drawback of this platform could be the past and potential data breaches that have occurred and could occur again. When it comes to Instagram, it is great for building a brand or promoting something, however for younger audiences it can create an unrealistic idea of life, or cause self-esteem issues because users may compare their lives to unrealistic lives of influencers on that platform.

I believe that the "right" number of connections relies on who you decide to connect to on Facebook. Personally, I connect with only my closest friends and family, as other connections don't seem necessary to me. I believe that having unnecessary connections is overwhelming for me, and connecting with people who show their life to be unrealistic can be draining to my mental health.

Using Facebook in a positive way by intentionally using it for a good purpose, such as messaging people close to you, or sharing personal photos with loved ones can create a positive user experience, as well as boosting the user's self-esteem. However, I think that using the platform to endlessly scroll due to boredom can cause content to appear that can cause issues with self-esteem. 

"Finally, some people might be attracted to social networking sites because they can create a more idealized self-someone who is more attractive and has a different personality than they actually have" (Pearson et al., 2021). 

I believe that social networking sites do have a responsibility of ensuring the mental health of their users. I believe that if social media networks started requiring that users only post authentic, real-life content, it would reduce the amount of unrealistic standards and show the human side of users. This would cure the feeling that users face when they view posts that are completely unrealistic. If social media platforms started to encourage realistic and down to earth content, users would start to feel less inferior to the other users of that platform. 

References

Pearson, J. C., Nelson, P. E., Titsworth, S., & Hosek, A. M. (Eds.). (2021). Human communication (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.