Most Of American Users Don’t Think Social Media Is A Good Thing

There was a time when social media was ‘the craze’ and no one wanted to be left behind on catching up with updates from the virtual world.

But things have changed now, and the proof comes from Axios that asked SurveyMonkey to conduct a poll to find out whether people still believe that social media is a good thing.

Out of the 3,622 adults who participated in the poll, the majority of them expressed a negative sentiment towards social media. “There was a 14-point increase in those who feel technology has hurt democracy and free speech.”

Also, the percentage of people who fear the federal government won’t do enough to regulate big tech companies saw a 15 point spike totaling up to 55% this year.

Even though 65% of people think that smartphones have improved their lives, only 40% of American users still feel that social media is a net positive for society.

There is a major decline in the number of American users who use social networking sites like Facebook. So if you still see social media in a positive light, you now belong to a minority group.

Overall, there is a common disdain for social media platforms owing to recent incidents like the Cambridge Analytica Scandal and live streaming of violence.

A report from The Verge says that Facebook continues to push its live streaming feature, which isn’t exactly a favorite among users. Not to mention the fact that it has been abused multiple times to live stream acts of violence and hate speech across the world.

The reason behind it is Facebook’s employee evaluation system that includes audience engagement metrics as well. For example, the number of messages sent. So engineers try to build projects that tend to juice this metric, impress seniors, and earn rewards.

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