Please review my IELTS task 2 essay

Topic: The use of social media is replacing face-to-face interaction among many people in society. Do you think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

Nowadays, more people and more people rely on social media to interact with others, instead of direct communication. While this trend offers certain benefits, the drawbacks prevail over positive impacts it brings.

On the one hand, one obvious benefit is that social media helps us connect with others easily. To be obvious, people who live far away from their family can make daily video calls to talk with family and relatives, which enables them to update family information without long distance travelling. Especially, in the pandemic like COVID19 and social quarantine, there are restrictions in moving between some regions, which emphasizes the importance of social media. Another likely gain is bringing us more opportunities. To be more specific, social media contains updated information in various fields, which means that people can sift the information and choose the most suitable one. For example, a graduated student can access to social network for accupation such as Linkedin to find recruitment news, even abroad jobs or enroll on interactive online courses internationally to enhance knowledge. In other words, social media is deleting physical distance and connecting the world.

On the other hand, I would argue that no social media can replace in-person interaction. Firstly, social media discourage real interaction and prevent people from developing social skills. This is the reason why there are more and more young people who are not confident to present in an off-line conference and have a facing talk with others. Another main downside is online scams. For instance, computer hackers may get personal information of social media users such as credit cards details, banking transactions for illegal purposes, which may leads people to risky situations. Particularly, online crime is becoming a huge problem which threatens users of almost social media, especial who do not have enough knowledge to protect themselves.

While this trend helps many of them keep in touch with others and bring us better chances, the downsides overwhelm the gains.