The Negative Effects of Social media — Youth
In the 21st century, it can easily be said that social media has taken over our lives completely. Giants like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and the likes of many others have become a part of our daily life. From posting pictures, with enhancing filters, on Instagram and Snapchat, to updating feeds with every moment of our life on Facebook, we have become so addicted to these platforms that we don’t realize what we are losing. It has become the NEW NORMAL!
Social Media was created to help people engage with their family and friends, far away from them, or to make new friends, but has social media helped us socialize much better than we used to? Well, the answer to this question can be both positive and negative. But due to the increasing frequency of the negative impact of social media, in this blog, we will look into the major causes and effects of the excessive growth of usage leading to various complications in our youth.
MAJOR CAUSES AND THEIR EFFECTS
According to researchers, these social sites have a major impact on our youth, sadly negative, affecting them not only in their academic life but also in changing their moral and ethical behaviors. The following statistics show how much our youth has been consumed by these social sites: https://www.statista.com/chart/19262/impact-of-social-media-on-mental-health/.
- SELF ISOLATION
Social media has caused a drastic reduction in face-to-face interaction amongst the youth, leading to self-isolation, as most of their time is spent in front of their screen. Today’s youth is spending more time with their social media friends than with their families, friends, and loved ones, creating barriers amongst them.
- UNETHICAL EXPOSURE
The internet is an unregulated world with no moral codes to abide by. Although these social sites do claim to have a check and balance policy regarding the content posted, still these platforms are being used to expose our youth with unethical content leading to emotional and physical complications in them, e.g. pornographic content being spread in some of the social groups online leading them into immoral acts, which in the end leads to rape, early pregnancies, HIV, etc. Not only this, but the wide presence of sexual predators, hunting and destroying our youth through these platforms with their violent acts has also become widely common. Sexually provoking content, like pornography, has led our young minds into a very dangerous addiction. Taylor Kohut, Department of Sociology — University of Zagreb, in his study Is pornography use a risk for adolescent well-being?, “Cross-sectional surveys have found that pornography use is related to reports of more negative affect, poor mental health and lower quality of life among adults as well as lower life-satisfaction and self-esteem, and more symptoms of depression amongst adolescents”.
- INSTANT REWARD
According to Harvard Graduate School of Education research story on “Social Media and Teen Anxiety”, Through likes and follows, teens are “getting actual data on how much people like them and their appearance,” says Lindsey Giller, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute who specializes in youth and young adults with mood disorders. “And you’re not having any break from that technology.” She’s seen teens with anxiety, poor self-esteem, insecurity, and sadness attributed, at least in part, to constant social media use. Our youth is so much obsessed with likes and comments these days that they tend to fake their personalities just to get a few amounts of likes and comments on their social media handles. Everything they are doing, they post them on forums to urge some sort of approval from strangers. They work tirelessly to shop for the newest outfits, eat expensive meals, and visit exotic places only for a show. Since they can’t get an equivalent love in the real world as they are doing in social media, they dedicate their lives fully to social platforms. Everything falls apart, however, when their popularity tails off and that they may get into serious psychological problems, like depression.
- NEGATIVE INFLUENCE
Profiles portraying ideal lifestyles influence the young minds to the extent that they start considering to change themselves, to achieve that ideality which leads to losing their self-identity. The Times article states, “It’s hard for many adults to understand how much of teenagers’ emotional life is lived within the small screens on their phones, but a CNN special report in 2015 conducted with researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the University of Texas at Dallas examined the social-media use of more than 200 13-year-olds. Their analysis found that “there is no firm line between their real and online worlds,” according to the researchers.” Many of the youth now feels the need to achieve that ideality that they have been fed with to get acceptance amongst their peers.
THE TRIGGERING FACTOR
In the Harvard Graduate School of Education research story, “Social Media and Teen Anxiety”, Youth and technology expert Amanda Lenhart’s 2015 Pew study of teens, technology, and friendships reveal a range of social media-induced stressors:
- Seeing people posting about events to which you haven’t been invited
- Feeling pressure to post positive and attractive content about yourself
- Feeling pressure to get comments and likes on your posts
- Having someone post things about you that you cannot change or control
In analyses of thousands of adolescents’ reactions to digital stressors, Weinstein and her colleagues have found even more challenges:
- Feeling replaceable: If you don’t respond to a best friend’s picture quickly or effusively enough, will she find a better friend?
- Too much communication: A boyfriend or girlfriend wants you to be texting far more often than you’re comfortable with.
- Digital “FOMO”: If you’re not up-to-date on the latest social media posts, will it prevent you from feeling like you can participate in real-life conversations at school the next day?
- Attachment to actual devices: If your phone is out of reach, will your privacy be invaded? Will you miss a message from a friend when he needs you?
As wisely said, “Stop before it’s too late”. Our youth have been de-tracked due to the immense influence of social media, so we as human beings it’s our responsibility to bring them out of this fantasy and show them the positive side of these platforms to help them make their life worth living.
