5 Things I Wish I Knew About Social Media in High School
By Emily Fiala
Did social media interfere with your high school experience too? For myself, I look back at my time in high school and realize how much social media influenced my daily life. Though social media can be a great tool for vast and quick communication, it can be a gateway to negative mental health impacts (cyberbullying, FOMO, addiction, etc.) My high school self would spends hours a day on Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and more. I know that high school students today are facing the same issues, and hope that these five points listed can inspire some to take a step back from their phones.
- You are still a cool person if you do not use social media.
I was not allowed to have any type of social media until I was 16 years old. At the time, I found this unbearable. I thought that I was the definition of a loser. Looking back now, however, I am so grateful that I was not exposed to the negatives at an early age. Everyone, especially youth, are susceptible to FOMO. I wish I had realized in high school that social media isn’t the most important thing in life, and that I wasn’t ‘missing out’ on fun.
2. Snapchat really is not that big of a deal.
My first social media app was Snapchat. As a sophomore in high school, I couldn’t wait to join all my friends and Snapchat them. Everyone made it seem like a bigger deal than it was. Snapchat users are prone to several negative impacts on the app, including cyberbullying, predators, and screen-time addiction.
High schoolers today are exposed to so much negative content and feedback daily, hurting their self-esteem and mental health. If I had known the dangers of Snapchat then, I probably wouldn’t have used it as much as I did.
3. What people post does not fully represent who they are.
After I downloaded Instagram, I was shocked by how many people seemed to be living the luxury life. Posts of traveling, friend groups, and positive things filled my entire page. It made me so envious watching other people living the life I wanted.
Now, as a 20 year old college student, I know that these profiles are only showing the good, not the bad. Ideal body types have always been a huge misrepresentation as well. Teenagers, especially young girls, are so influenced by media’s presentation of women that it changes how they perceive their own body image.
4. It DOES NOT matter how many likes you get.
The followers never bothered me on Instagram while first using it. What got me was the number of likes a post would get and how quickly people would like it. I convinced myself that the higher the like count, the more people liked me and the cooler I was.
Something that is new that wasn’t available in high school is the option to hide like counts on Instagram. This initiative was created to better people’s mental health and help them not focus on their popularity of their posts. If I had had this choice in high school, it would have saved me lots of overthinking and worrying about my friendships.
5. There is a lot of misinformation presented on social media.
I never realized how gullible I was, and continue to be sometimes, to fake news and the spread of misinformation on social media.
Misinformation continues to be a huge barrier in spreading the truth throughout different media platforms. Teenagers are exposed to so many rumors and trends that don’t align with reality. It can build a false sense of what’s going on in the real world. If I had recognized and applied this ideas while using social media, it would have helped me grasp a better understanding of reality.
