The Answer or the Problem?

That seems to be the debate of our generation. I think that as much as we love our social media, and as attached to them as we get, we realize the hurt accompanied. I do not deny the amazing benefits that we receive from social media. We are able to keep connections with people on the other side of the world, we can get messages to other people quicker and without having to travel and find them, and we have resources available to us that otherwise would not be so. The list continues with the invention and improvement of each new social media. Still, I can't help but believe that horrific consequences of social media are yet to come. 

"It must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things" (2 Nephi 2:11, Book of Mormon)

We can list a seemingly incredible number of benefits but with these good consequences must come the bad ones. The question is not whether social media is the answer to our problems, or the problem requiring an answer, but rather it is a matter of 'do the positives outweigh the negatives?' I am very quick to tell people about my detest for Facebook, how it is so addictive, time-consuming, wasteful, pointless, and unsociable, but I dare not delete my account. In fact, I use Facebook almost everyday, several times a day. I often justify this behavior as addiction but even when I have gone a long time without using it I realize why I so often return - Communication. Facebook provides an opportunity for me to regularly keep contact with friends and family over four thousand miles away. Sometimes I need to talk to my family, discussing school or financial affairs, and other times I simply miss them and it's almost as if I can return to them through the internet. I rely heavily upon this for my financial, academic and psychological well-being.

Now, we can see, there isn't a black and white answer.