Social media has had profound impacts, some good some bad, upon societies the World over. The benefits are far too valuable to abandon to avoid the adverse effects of social media. Rather we should focus on mitigating the adverse effects. The favourable impacts we should not forego include immensely more efficient communications for family, other social, and business purposes. They in turn have positive consequences for economic and psychological well being and the beneficial indirect effects individuals and societies derive from improved wealth and mental health.
The main adverse effects of social media include significant corruption of political debate, encouragement of common and extreme forms of abuse and sociopathic behaviours. There are now multiple findings by reputable parties of State sponsored interference in democratic processes in Western countries. And social media is exploited covertly domestically, often most so by the most powerful existing parties in a given society.
For each example of constructive and adverse consequences of social media one can readily identify counter illustrations. That, and the reality that the information technology genie cannot be put back in the bottle, show emphatically that we can only choose to advance the many positives of social media, whilst mitigating its negatives.