Social media is critical for communication amongst peers, but there is a certain limit to when this becomes too much. A study of Arab teens discovered that over 60% of teens believe that social media negatively affects their mental health. Another study explained that most teens struggle with FOMO due to the constant pressures of mainstream media to be a part of the big group and not to miss out on the next big trend. While this is most definitely true, and the negative side effects of social media are most certainly evident, I believe that teens shouldn’t fully go without social media as it serves as a critical growth point in their developing lives. Instead, children should learn how to stay safe online as they grow alongside technology.
The brain is drawn to technology due to its newness, and this can make kids susceptible to being addicted to tech and subsequently social media. However, technology is the future, and social media is the future of communication. Teenagers need to learn how to interact through social media because they will be doing it for the rest of their lives. While it is quite easy to become addicted, the simple remedy is enhanced “training” by parents to ensure that their teens are safe on the internet. And while technology may negatively affect a child’s brain throughout their development, close sensoring and limiting by parents at an especially young age should ensure that no critical lapses will occur in a child’s development.
It is important that with this growth, teenagers need to learn how to avoid negativity on the internet. Instead of just removing social media from the lives of tweens and teens, kids should learn how to be safe and sound on the internet.
A lack of safety online can be dangerous for many people. In my life, I had a friend who was cyberbullied to the point that they made an attempt on their life. Without proper teaching about how to put mental health first and how to avoid negativity on the internet, it is possible that many other teenagers fall victim to the atrocities faced by my friend.
Overall, while technology can become easily addictive and can lead to negative mental health struggles, it is a critical part of teenager’s development and it will be around for a long time, so teens will have to learn one way or another how to thrive through social media. With the promotion of positive self-identity and avoidance of bullying on social media, the positives will vastly outweigh the negatives of social media in the lives of teens.
Word Count: 435
Works Cited:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/health/social-media-addiction.html
https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/internetsafetyforkids/teaching-kids-about-internet-safety/1/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/17/upshot/social-media-teen-mental-health.html