Social media as well as technology has taken over many people’s lives. Many teens spend their time on social media communicating with their friends and it’s affecting their relationships, but most of them haven’t realized it yet. Teens are focusing more on what’s on their phone, rather than communicating face to face and it’s causing harm to their mental health. Social media has caused depression, anxiety, and unhealthy sleep patterns. We are addicted to our devices and it’s affecting us in a bad way because we are losing the connection to the real world, as well as us depending on our phones, computers, tablets, etc.
Social media has many cons to it, for instance, teens who spend most of their day on social media tend to lower their grades in the classes they are taking in school. It can affect the teen in many ways because when it lowers their grade, the teen may not be aware of it, or not care at all, and won’t make an effort to fix the grade. However, the bad grade they receive will affect them later on, especially if they are trying to get into a really good college. Before, I was really into social media and communicating with my friends through there. I was always on it whether I was in school, using the bathroom, with my friends, or even my family. I used to mainly use Snapchat or Instagram because those were the most “popping” apps. I started to get addicted to my phone and started slacking in school. So once my grades went down, I didn’t know until report cards were sent home. That’s when it hit me, I had mostly Cs and at least one B. I knew I was focusing too much on what my friends were posting on Snapchat or what pictures were being posted on Instagram. I was too focused on other people’s lives when I should’ve been focused on school and myself instead.
Social Media can cause an invasion of privacy to people’s lives and can affect them in different ways. Many teens always are always snapping what they’re doing whether it’s eating with some friends, posting screenshots of conversations, doing their nails/hair, at the mall, etc. While teens think it’s okay to post their everyday lives, there may be someone else (one of their followers) that can stalk them and harm them because they’re posting what they’re doing, at what time, who they’re with, and wherever they’re at. This can cause online tracking which involves tracking people’s online activities and conversations from social media or any other social activity. This can be dangerous for many teens because those who do use Facebook can be targeted as to knowing their gender, age, location, education level, etc. and this is caused by advertisers that appear on Facebook.
We aren’t communicating face to face as much as before and this is affecting relationships in different types of ways. For example, when talking face to face with someone, you can interpret your thoughts and feelings, as well as seeing the facial expression someone makes, their body language, their reaction to what you say, and their tone in voice. There are teens (as well as adults) that are slowly getting used to their devices that most of them hardly communicate face to face. This can affect friendships as well as different relationships because when communicating through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc, if you say something that comes out wrong, they’ll get the opposite idea of what you were trying to say. But if you were talking face to face, even if you don’t say something the way you want, you can always correct and explain yourself in a better way than before. However society is so caught up on their devices that they spend most of their days just laying around texting through messages or even being on social media the whole day. These devices have become so powerful that they change not only what we do, but also who we are and how we tend to act. We are so focused on our phones that instead of going out with our friends, most of us are on social media the entire day. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s fine to be on social media and communicate with friends or family, but are we always going to communicate with each other through our devices? If we only communicate through our phones how are we going to do certain things in the real world?
Teens are being affected by social media and its causing depression, anxiety, and lowering their self esteem. There are many people see that someone on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. who has a great job, a really nice husband, a beautiful home, and they feel happy for them. However, there are others that can feel jealous, depressed, or may even feel suicidal about their own life as if it isn’t as “perfect” as those they see on Facebook. Many compare themselves (which is wrong) and it shouldn’t be that way. Instead of comparing yourself with someone that has something you don’t, don’t take it the wrong way. Try finding ways to improve on what you can do to get what you want and even more rather than feeling bad about yourself or being depressed because you don’t have what someone else does. That should make you want to strive for the best instead of focusing on what someone posted on Facebook or Instagram. Many teens, especially girls, tend to worry too much about what others might think of them and how they think others see them, and as a result this causes pressure on them because they think they have to look a certain way which can be a source of the teens having anxiety or lowering their self esteem.
There are many more cons to social media, but overall there are good and bad things. Not only does it harm teens mental health but it can lead to something very serious. Social media is not good but it isn’t bad either. As long as you use it properly, then you won’t have a hard time with anything.
Jayqualine's Blog 