Social Media
Written by Allysa Moore.
Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook are all different types of social media. If you’re a teen in the 21st century you probably have an account on multiple different platforms. Social media is a website or network that enables users to create and share content or participate in social networking. People of different ages use social media for different purposes. For example, teens more than often use different platforms as a way of communication while some adults use it for advertising or seeing what old friends are up to. While on the surface social media sounds like a light-hearted form of communication, it can also be very detrimental to a teen’s development.
Different apps have different purposes. On the app store, Instagram’s purpose is stated to “capture and share the world’s moments, follow your friends and family to see what they’re up to, and discover accounts from all over the world that are sharing things you love.” People take advantage of this by creating personal or business accounts in order to show and display what they’re doing, what’s important to them, or what they want to advertise. While there are positive ways to use Instagram, there are also negative. It is not uncommon to find scam accounts, pedophiles, or trafficking accounts. This is especially dangerous for naive teens who can’t tell the difference in accounts of a 15 year old who goes to a neighboring high school and a fake account of a teenager that goes to a near school, who in reality is a pedophile with bad intentions. It’s also dangerous for teens who are lonely and looking for companionship. While social media, Instagram in specific, can be a very fun way of communication, it can also be very dangerous, which is why teens need to know how to use it safely.
Internet safety is knowledge on how to keep oneself and personal information safe from the world. Some of the most basic internet safety tips are to create complex passwords for accounts, keep accounts on social media private, and to not give out personal information such as a phone number, address, or social security number.
Another form of social media that has both positive and negative effects on teens is Snapchat. Snapchat is an app where users can message each other through forms of pictures, texts, and FaceTime. Users can also post on their “story” for everyone they have added to see. It’s full of fun filters and public stories to watch and discover what others are doing. A unique part of Snapchat that many other apps don’t have is a feature in which pictures sent are deleted in a matter of seconds. This saves space on phones and also leaves them less cluttered however, many people take advantage of this feature by sending pictures that have no business being sent. Those who do this, do it knowing their picture can not be re-traced by citizens who don’t work for the law. Because of the fact that primary users of Snapchat are teenagers, this can often get them into trouble.
Some parents are aware of the danger created by social media and take actions to keep their kids safe. Some teens aren’t allowed to have accounts on certain social media platforms as their parents don’t want the possible corruption for their kids. Phones are coming out with new updates to restrict time that can be spent on certain apps. Once the allotted time has been used, the app will disable itself so it can’t be used anymore for that day. But there is a point in which too much sheltering could end up worse for the child than none at all.
While some restriction in regards to apps and social media can be excessive and therefore detrimental. Teens who experience heavy amounts of restraint, with technology or rules in general, can develop mainly in two different ways. One way is when the teen has been so sheltered from society that they are too naive to function without the constant aid of a parent. These kids are very overprotected and tend to be ignorant towards things that happen in real life, regardless if they are bad or not. The other is when the child is defiant and rebellious towards his or her parents or other adults. This comes from spite and the want to have what their peers have.
On social media there’s what are called influencers. These can be formal and informal. A formal influencer is someone paid by a company to advertise their products, they are influencing their followers to buy the products being advertised. Informal influencers are people who tend to be looked up to whether they are celebrities, athletes, or students at a local high school. These people influence their followers to be and act like them by following different trends. This can be extremely detrimental to a teen’s self esteem as they believe there is only one way to look and act and that would be; how influencers behave. It can be minor or major problems that arise through the trap of comparison that teens seem to fall into while scrolling through their feed. These problems could be self-hatred, anxiety, mental health and eating disorders, or even depression about how they look. Society has created an “ideal” image of what people should look like and if you don’t replicate that image or look similar to it, you’re not accepted and will also face informal sanctions or backlash.
Finding a way to get the right amount of time on social media without going overboard and leading to rebellion or or naiveness is key in raising teens. Using social media in ways that are wholesome and non detrimental to a teen’s mental health are also equally important.
