Are Social Media Platforms Morally Right?

The average teen spends 1-3 hours on Tiktok every day! Crazy right? Social media is great - talk to whoever you want whenever you want, meet new friends and dive into a virtual world of looking at all the new and exciting things you'd never know about or see without staring into a screen.

YouTube especially is appearing more and more in the news as its 'creators' seem to be causing more emotional distress than creating the intended content they want to broadcast - and people seem to enjoy it, as millions and millions watch these influencers create this turn of events or new trends. Even I am guilty of looking up some of the recent dramas and escapades of the celebrity world or reading Trumps latest campaign on Twitter.

Do social media platforms create a morally acceptable culture for example as we seem to be using 'cancel culture' in modern-day society where social media platforms have become a place whereby if you do something wrong, you are instantly shunned from every community online. Is this ethical? Yes, it seems to work in the respect that it helps show others the bigger issues we all need to educate ourselves on, such as racism, sexism etc. but are we impacting not only the person but the people around them and taking all our anger out on this one person - could this be justice or displaced aggression?

In contrast, social media has seen a huge advancement in advocating change such as the BLM movement and helping to educate people on the horrific injustice black people face on a daily basis. People, celebrities, political parties have been sharing how we can support, educating the public on the need for change, would we have learned about this without Social Media - potentially? But Social media is live, its present and it displays our society and emotion. The result, the amazing movement and start to give all POC (people of colour) the justice they deserve.

Another big ethical problem we face nowadays is body image. Social media plays its part here, the need to look "perfect" when perfect in itself is unachievable and is a very subjective issue in itself. Body Image affects both genders alike - each adding pressure to themselves to keep up with this ever-changing 'trend' of who looks better, when in actual fact our differences make us interesting, should we not be learning to love ourselves.

Platforms such as Instagram show people in their best moments, I mean you have at least 12 filters to choose from before you click and upload. People have the option to like your picture and comment, the trepidation of how many people liked picture and have such a huge impact on people, yet we chose to upload it.

To counter this more and more influencers seem to be promoting positivity on their platforms. Marcus Rashford is becoming a huge presence on Twitter (@MarcusRashford) - He has been a huge influence on free school meals for children, and he used social media to help spread this campaign, getting him an MBE and convincing the government to carry on giving out free school meals during the pandemic.

Social media plays a big role in most teenager's lives - keeping us up to date and in touch with others probably more so in these unprecedented times of the Pandemic. Each individual using Social Media determines what they see, watch, hear and they control what to socialise on platforms (to a point). Do you take responsibility for your moral actions online?