Potential negative impacts of social media have been increased by the pandemic

Social media allows us to be more connected than ever before, an overarching concern that has always been voiced whenever technology advances is a phenomenon known as social displacement- that time on technology such as social media is "eating away at face-face time." ^[4] When interacting with friends or loved ones, we tend to use several forms of communication, such as texting, calling, and in-person. Especially in such times where in-person interaction is difficult and unsafe, social media allows people to stay connected with each other. It has become evident this year the importance of human interaction and how social media can never "replace" it. Over a quarter of millennials and teenagers (who have grown up around social media) said that “social media is ‘extremely' or ‘very' important for expressing themselves creatively.”^[4] This same group also claims to see racist or hate messages on social media "sometimes." However, the issue of racism, hate, or prejudice is longstanding and existed long before social media.