Social Media's Effect On Young People

Think back to the time you met an important person in your life who you dearly care about such as your spouse, partner, or best friend. Do you realize that simply being on your phone could've prevented you from ever meeting this special person? It's an unfortunate and sad reality today that many young people are missing out on these life-changing interactions daily. They spend hours a day mindlessly scrolling through their social media accounts and they have no idea what opportunities they missed with the people around them. I myself wasted almost all of the time spent with family on the holidays because I was too busy on my phone and it prevented me from forming strong relationships with family members.

With the creation of group messaging, FaceTime, the internet, and social media apps it has never been easier to to talk to friends. But is it really the same and are they really our friends? Young people today are missing out on face to face interactions with people which are critical for developing communications skills which are vital for success in the workplace. Young people use the term "friend" so loosely to the point where it totally neglects the true meaning of the word.

Also the excessive use of social media makes young people more stressed out. With the use of social media comes cyber bullying. Cyber bullying makes it possible for bullying to occur 24/7. A victim of bullying is no longer safe from bullies when they get home from school because they can still be bullied online. Also social media makes it easier than ever for rumors, disturbing pictures, and false information to spread about someone which could totally ruin their reputation and in some cases it could lead to suicide such as with Amanda Todd.

Young people are also constantly trying to change their image to receive as many likes as possible and gain as many followers as possible. It's almost like they are judging their self worth over these two silly numbers. What social media fails to teach young people is that the number of friends and likes you have doesn't matter, it's about the quality of the friends that you have. There's nothing wrong with only having 3 or 4 close friends in real life rather than having 800 "friends" that you don't even know through social media.

If you were to scroll through the comments section on any popular post your are bound to find people arguing over nonsense and using very mean, offensive, and/or disturbing terms to describe each other. It always like someone always has something mean to say and since it's through the internet they can hide their face and identity through a screen name.

In my opinion today's youth would be much better off in a society that isn't dominated by the use of technology. Nowadays kids don't go outside as much anymore and they can't seem to be entertained without the use of some sort of glowing rectangle. Life was better when it was simpler, when kids played together and used their imagination to have fun, when people saw each other in person, when bullying couldn't follow a person home, when young people were less stressed about pleasing their fake friends, and when people weren't kept prisoner behind their screens.