From status updates on Facebook, to emotional rants on Twitter, to artsy photos on Instagram: social media is used around the world by millions of people every day. In fact, according to 2017 data from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the U.S. alone accounts for 153 million social media users — 74 percent of all American internet users.

Social networking is used for marketing, social gaming, news and group chats. The ease of usage puts us very close with celebrities. Also, it is much easier to express your opinion from behind a screen than standing in front of someone.

The internet and social networking have become a massive part of society, but not all for good. To maximize the benefits of connectivity, we should cut down and be smarter with our usage of social media, as it fosters problems like addiction, online harassment and fake news.

It should not be surprising to hear that internet addiction is a prevalent issue among the younger generation today. After all, social networking is often praised for the fast and efficient communication it provides users.

The freedom of the internet also has its downside, though. Addiction to social media leaves its victims about 21 percent more likely to suffer from many personality disorders, according to a 2016 study in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions titled “The association between internet addiction and personality disorders in a general population-based sample.”

Online harassment through social media is prevalent and can be committed by anybody. Whether it’s an attention seeking high schooler calling someone ugly, fat, or dumb or President Donald Trump using Twitter in the 2016 election to denounce his opponents, referring to them as “Crooked Hillary,” “Lying Ted Cruz,” and “The Lightweight Choker” (Marco Rubio), media fights are unfortunately a staple of modern day social networking.

Fans encourage these ridiculous “beefs,” egging their favorite celebrities on as they sit back and watch. Dan Piraro’s cartoon “The Modern Duel” depicts the modern use of the internet to settle disagreements. It’s set up like an olden-day duel, which was a deadly way to resolve disputes.

However, the two duelists are armed with phones, and are instructed to “take ten paces, then turn and begin tweeting.”

Also, if it seems like the fake news is appearing everywhere on your feed, that’s because it is. According to a 2018 study titled “The spread of true and false news online” in the journal Science, false news spreads broader and faster than the truth.

Why do lies spread faster than truth? The study asserts that falsehoods are more surprising and novel than reality, and users are more likely to share unique information.

In addition, our societal dependence on social media has led Twitter and Facebook to become our primary source of news. With celebrities and politicians able to communicate unfiltered to their millions of followers, it’s no wonder people are crazy about getting information from social networks.

In all honesty, the internet is only so popular today because of how much it helps us and appeals to us. Social media is beneficial for mass communication or keeping in touch with classmates or coworkers, which can be very useful and entertaining.

It also makes sense that the growing use of social media affects the way business in the modern world works.  To quickly and efficiently communicate to the world, most companies use the internet and social media to share information to large numbers of people. Social media has established itself as a must for businesses — it is by far the best way to reach out to the masses in our society.

While these are all benefits to moderate usage of the internet, there is no doubt that there are downsides to overuse like addiction and mental health problems.

Overall, time spent connected to the internet needs to decrease. Benefits like connectivity to friends, mass communication, media sharing and others are most effective if used in moderation. Having a tech-free time at home would aid this twofold by lessening usage of the internet and encouraging family interaction.

As the technology in society evolves, so do the users. If the internet is used well, today’s students can use the technology at their disposal to become the future’s technological leaders.