Social media connects you to people and information, but the trade-off is your attention and your data
Social media platforms let you stay in touch with people across distance, find communities around shared interests, and discover information you would not encounter otherwise. You can message someone in another country when ready, join a group focused on your hobby or health condition, or see what happened in your town without waiting for the evening news. These are real conveniences that billions of people use daily.
But the reason these services are free is that you are not the customer — advertisers are. The platforms collect detailed information about what you do, what you like, where you are, and what you buy, then sell access to that data to people who want to influence your behaviour. Understanding what you actually get from social media, and what it costs you in return, helps you decide how much of your time and information you want to give.
Key Takeaways
- Social media lets you maintain relationships across distance and find communities of people with shared interests or experiences.
- The platforms track your location, browsing, purchases, and behaviour to build detailed profiles used for targeted advertising.
- Spending time on social media can reduce sleep, increase anxiety, and create a false sense of how other people's lives actually look.
- You do not have to choose between using social media and protecting your information — you can limit what you share, adjust privacy settings, and use the platforms less frequently.
Staying connected across distance
The most straightforward benefit of social media is that it makes distance irrelevant. You can message a friend in another country for free, see photos of a relative's new baby within minutes of it being born, and keep up with people you knew years ago without losing touch entirely. Before social media, this required phone calls, letters, or planned visits — all of which cost money or time.
For people who move frequently, live far from family, or have friends scattered across multiple cities, this is genuinely useful. You can also reconnect with people you lost contact with — classmates, old colleagues, people you met while travelling. Social media makes that possible in a way that was not practical before.
Finding communities and information
Social media platforms host communities around nearly every interest, identity, and experience. If you have a rare health condition, you can find other people managing the same thing and learn what treatments they have tried. If you are learning to cook, you can follow people who share recipes and techniques. If you are navigating parenthood, grief, a career change, or a hobby, there are groups of people doing the same thing, often willing to answer questions and share what they have learned.
This is particularly valuable for people who feel isolated in their physical location — whether because of geography, identity, or circumstance. You can also discover information about local events, news, and issues faster than traditional news outlets report them, which can be useful when something is happening in your area.
The cost: your attention and your data
Social media platforms are designed to keep you scrolling. They use algorithms that show you content most likely to make you stop and engage — which often means content that triggers strong emotion: outrage, envy, anxiety, or validation. The longer you stay on the platform, the more ads you see, and the more data you generate. This is how the company makes money.
The data collection is extensive. Platforms track what you click, what you search for, how long you look at each post, what you buy online, where you go physically (if location services are on), what device you use, and what other websites you visit. They combine this information into a detailed profile of your interests, habits, and vulnerabilities — and sell access to advertisers who use it to target you with ads designed to influence what you buy or believe.
Even if you do not click on ads, the tracking happens. Even if you think your account is private, the platform itself collects the same data. Deleting a post does not delete the data the platform collected when you posted it.
How social media affects your wellbeing
Research shows that heavy social media use is associated with increased anxiety, depression, and sleep problems, particularly in teenagers and young adults. Part of this is the comparison effect: you see carefully curated versions of other people's lives — their best moments, their best angles, their best days — and compare them to your own unfiltered reality. This creates a false sense that everyone else is happier, more successful, or more attractive than they actually are.
The platforms also use notifications and streaks (features that reward you for using the app every day) to create habit-forming patterns. Your brain releases dopamine when you get a like or a comment, which reinforces the behaviour of checking the app repeatedly. This is not accidental — it is built into the design.
The amount of time people spend on social media has also increased. The average person now spends several hours per day on these platforms, time that could go to sleep, exercise, face-to-face relationships, or other activities that research shows are better for mental health.
You can use social media without giving away everything
You do not have to choose between using social media and protecting your information. Most platforms have privacy settings that let you control who sees your posts, limit what information is visible on your profile, and restrict who can contact you. These settings are often buried in menus and set to the least private option by default, but they exist.
You can also limit what you share: post less frequently, avoid sharing your location, do not use your real name, and do not connect your social media account to other apps or websites. You can turn off notifications so the app does not interrupt you constantly. You can set a timer on your phone to limit how much time you spend on the app each day. You can mute or unfollow accounts that make you feel bad about yourself.
None of these steps will stop the platform from collecting data about your behaviour on the platform itself, but they reduce the amount of information available to advertisers and the amount of time the platform can claim from your day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does social media actually make you depressed?
Research shows a correlation between heavy social media use and depression, particularly in teenagers, but it is not clear whether social media causes depression or whether people who are already struggling use social media more. What is clear is that comparing yourself to others, losing sleep, and spending hours on the platform instead of doing things that improve mood (exercise, face-to-face time, sleep) can make depression worse if you already have it.
Can I stop the platforms from tracking me?
You cannot stop them from tracking your behaviour on their own platform, but you can limit what they know about you elsewhere. Turn off location services, do not let the app access your contacts or photos, and do not click "log in with Facebook" or "log in with Google" on other websites — each of those connections gives the platform more data about what you do online.
What happens to my data if I delete my account?
The platform keeps data it collected before you deleted the account. Deleting your account removes your visible profile and posts, but the company retains the information it gathered about your behaviour, which it may continue to use for advertising purposes. Some platforms let you read your data before you delete, which shows you what they collected.
Is it better to not use social media at all?
That depends on what you use it for. If you use it to stay in touch with people you care about or to find community around something important to you, the benefit may outweigh the cost. If you use it mainly to scroll and compare yourself to others, you might feel better without it. You can also take breaks — delete the app for a month and see how you feel.
Why do platforms make it so hard to find privacy settings?
Because the less private your account is, the more data the platform collects and the more valuable you are to advertisers. The platforms have no financial incentive to make privacy straightforward. You have to actively look for these settings and change them yourself.