Face to face interaction among many people in society is replaced by the use of social media. In my opinion, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages because of several reasons.
First, the use of social media makes youth become passively contributing to their villages. Social media use has replaced physical interaction between people. Since interaction between people rarely happen, they become less involved in society. Less involvement in society means few people join community activities or any collective actions. For example, youth who are rarely seen and engaged in Banjar, a community in Balinese village, have less impact to their villages’ economic improvement because community events are rarely created. In addition, youth become passive and do not have sense of belonging for their villages as the interaction more actively happen in social media.
Second, even though social media connects more people together, it makes fraud and misinformation more likely to happen. This is because people less interact physically and are more likely to believe in marketing gimmicks. Since buying interesting products on social media does not need any physical meetings, buyers tend to believe only on products’ online information. For example, buyers check out cosmetic products in e-commerce turn to be dissatisfied because of failed product functions. In addition, buyers need to validate the product functions by coming to store, asking the sellers and trying to use the product. Believing alone in social media endorsement is not recommended in this case.
In conclusion, I believe that the drawbacks of social media are more than its benefits. First, it makes people become passively contributing to their villages. Second, people more likely exposed to fraud and misinformation.