Social media is useful for staying connected with friends, expressing yourself through art and music, finding communities to fit into and more.  

 Nearly the entire world is online. More than 5 billion people have at least one activated account on at least one social media website. Despite this, there are more negative than positive aspects to using social media. 

 Communities such as teenagers, kids and many adults are negatively affected by harmful content, such as cyberbullying, privacy concerns, hackers, and disruptions in relationships, sleep, and taking occasional breaks from social media. Knowing this, people need to have healthy habits to combat how they can be affected.  

 Before getting too involved in social media, you will want to understand many things such as your digital footprint, how to block and remove people or messages, recognizing and reporting fraud or fake accounts, and knowing how to filter certain content. 

 Solutions include small things such as reducing your screen time, not accepting certain follow or message requests, and putting in place strong privacy settings. Healthy habits outside of social media would be getting on a daily schedule, being careful who you’re friends with, giving yourself positive reassurance and drinking enough water. Staying protected from the bad side of social media is mostly about changing your habits, but doing research into social media, its effects, and understanding it are also important.