Adverse Effects of Social Media on the Youth
Abstract
Countless researchers have focused their efforts on unfolding the repercussions following the continuous use of social media amongst the youth. They have all discovered that social media might be useful in some way, but it has countless shortcomings that indicate that using social affects the youths negatively. Their lives are affected in one way or another, be it their personal life or social life.
Introduction
By definition, social media refers to all websites and applications that facilitate the communication of people around the world. The communication is in the form of video calls, text messages, content sharing, amongst other functionalities, guaranteed by the presence of internet connectivity for its users. For people to be able to use social media, they have to sign up for the social media platforms where they give their detailed personal information. That information enables them to sign in to their accounts whenever they need to access their accounts. After becoming an official member on any social media platform, the user is able to interact with other users. Some of the most common social media platforms are WhatsApp, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Social media has gained more popularity over the past two decades on an international level, garnering attention from researchers all around the world. They seek to uncover all there is is to these social media platforms and their effects on the lives of their users. Most especially, the researchers focus more on the youth since they are considered to be the most fanatic users of social media since they are the freedom to do that, and teenagers follow second in the ranking. Through this research, researchers have discovered that social media has adverse effects on the youth in terms of their health, morals, education, behavior, and social life.
Literature Review
- Health
Using social media has been found to have a detrimental effect on the psychological health of the users, a fact that is most prominent amongst the youth. At times, social media affects mental health, but one is still not able to realize it.
One way social media affects social media by attacking our self-esteem. Everybody has their insecurities, and the majority of those insecurities are untold to others. It does not help that one is able to interact with people on social media platforms that are the epitome of perfection. Their social media accounts are clogged with perfect pictures of themselves, some of which are photoshopped. While most of the users’ lives are a façade, it does little to assuage one from doubting themselves. According to Dr. Tim Bono, the author of When Likes Aren’t Enough, it is not advisable to derive a sense of worth on comparing ourselves to others since this leads unhappy thoughts over a situation that we cannot control (). Therefore, it is advisable for youths to limit the time they spend on social media platforms comparing their lives to others. By so doing, they could focus their attention on themselves and boosting their self-confidence.
Secondly, social media has been found to have a tremendous effect on the human connection amongst the youth. It is very important for any human to have face-to-face interactions with other people. It is because it enables the forging of personal connections with others, in addition to communication. However, face-to-face interactions are impossible when most of the time is spent on electronic devices, communicating with digital friends whose personas might be a facade compared to their real personas.
Thirdly, social media also has a tremendous effect on memory. Most people post their most memorable events on social media, but it can also cause a distortion in the manner one recalls those events. The majority of the youth spend too much time trying to perfect the photos they need to post on their social media that they fail actually to experience firsthand the memorable event. Dr. Bono says that delving all our attention to capturing the best pictures for our followers to see takes away much time from enjoying in real life, and in the end, the happiness we would have felt is undermined ().
Fourthly, social media affects the sleeping patterns of most people. Youths are expected to have at least six hours of sleep per day. However, that is not always the case since they decide to check their social media platforms before going to bed, making it a tad bit difficult to let go of the phone. Additionally, most of them get anxious from waiting to see people’s feedback on social media, activating the epinephrine hormone in the brain. This makes it harder to fall asleep. Additionally, the bright light from the phone or laptops also suppresses the hormone responsible for fatigue, melatonin. The quality of sleep is greatly influenced by the hormone melatonin, so it is advisable to restrict the usage of electronic devices at least one hour before bedtime.
Social media also has an effect on the attention span. The ability of the brain to fully concentrate when one is awake is greatly affected by the continuous use of phones. Youths have become very distracted by social media since most of the information they need is readily available on the internet. Due to easy accessibility to instant and easily accessible entertainment, many of the youth often give in to the temptation despite where they are. The ability to resist checking the phone every few minutes is willpower most of the youth do not have.
Body shaming and cyberbullying are negative aspects of social media that have a tremendous effect on the state of mind of the youths. Therefore, it is no wonder the majority of them are unhappy when using these platforms, resulting in the users developing psychological issues such as depression and anxiety. When it comes to worst, and they can no longer handle the pressure, most of the youth from Generation Z decide to quit social media for good. Additionally, the chances of having an identity stolen are very high, and the information can be used to conduct crimes, destroys their records. If one feels that social media is bogging them down, then it would not hurt to restrict the time you spend on these platforms for the sake of your mental health.
- Morals
The internet is an unregulated world that fails to abide by any form of law or morals. The majority of parents are against social media platforms since they have seen the moral implications it has had on their children. The media is considered to be the main source of information where certain ideas are propagated, pushing people to behave in certain manners. Various spheres of life are negatively impacted, most especially human morality. Since most people are greatly influenced by what they see and hear, they behave in accordance with that. For instance, aggression and violence are greatly advertised on the internet; they have become some cult. As a result, most of them are more likely to act aggressively, indulge in substance abuse, and suicide. Therefore, media violence is one of the leading causes of aggression and violence.
Youths are exposed to all sorts of gore images, ranging from nudism, gun shootings, explicit sexual content, amongst others. Continuous consumption of such images influences the behavior of the youth, and in a while, they desire to act in the very same manner while others have mental breakdowns.
- Education
Students are greatly affected by the continuous use of social media. Their accua=racy when it comes to written language is distorted, mostly because they are used to using ‘slang’ English in social media platforms. Texting language does not utilize proper grammar and spellings during communication. As a result, it becomes extremely difficult to comprehend the actual context of the discussion. They do not even bother to learn the proper language since there exist software such as Grammarly that will automatically correct any errors found in the works, making it difficult for students even to bother learning the correct grammar.
Social media platforms encourage students to become lazy. There exist several social media platforms that enable students to interact with other people. On these platforms, students interact with expert writers who are willing to write their assignments at a fee. Therefore, they do not put effort when it comes to delivering their assignments since they could get the experts to deliver their assignments for them. While this might be beneficial to their overall performance in class, it does not help them in any way since they do not possess the said knowledge that they have presented in their assignment.
Additionally, students are also influenced to partake in activities such as drug use and cheating to perform better. It is true that most students do not concentrate during their lectures in school, most especially college students. As a result, they barely have sufficient educational content to enable them to pass their exams. Since it is a necessity to pass their exams for them to graduate and create better opportunities for them after school, they are willing to go to extreme measures to make that happen. Some might go as far as cheating since the internet provides all sorts of information without fail. However, this measure is too risky and might jeopardize their entire life if caught. So, most of them take the easy way out, taking study drugs. There exist drugs that, when consumed, the capacity of the brain to intake information is expanded, making it possible to absorb and retain information without fail. The most prominent study drug is Adderal, a drug prescription often given to Autistic people to speed up the development of their brains. Taking this drug when studying for an upcoming exam guarantees that any information they gather will be recalled when needed during the exam, and their life will not be ruined for cheating. However, this is at the risk of addiction.
- Behavior
- Social Life