Social media has this hold over anyone who uses it. From Instagram to Tik Tok. You see people on these apps all the time, whether its doom scrolling or looking at the latest trends, people tend to spend hours just doing nothing on these apps. Yet, Instagram and Tik Tok aren’t the only social media apps, they consists of; Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and WeChat. While others are mainly used and talked about in the media, doesn’t mean that people aren’t using them. While younger people tend to spend more time on social media, 3 to 5 hours daily.
Social media impacts kids drastically. Kids will see something and believe it, or they see something and put that expectation on themselves. Its harmful for kids to do that, its harmful for anyone to do that. Teenagers especially fit into this, they tend to spend 4.8 hours on social media daily. While there can be pros and cons to teens being on social media, as in making new friends, but it can also come with cyberbullying. Social media can also impact a kid/teens self-esteem and body image. Kids see these people on social media and want to be like them, putting toxic thoughts in their heads, saying they aren’t good enough.
I’m not the only worried about this, so are the parents of children who are on a social media app all the time. Mental Health is a big factor when it comes to teens and social media apps. Twelve to fifteen year olds who spend all their time on social media tend to face double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes. I also think parents have at least some responsibility when it comes to these kids/teens getting a social media app, they can supervise what the kid sees or what they search up, plus there’s also ways where an adult has to put in a password to approve whatever app the kid/teen wants.
Lets look at how it can impact kids in school. Social media, or just phones in general can distract kids from the important activates of life, like spending time with family, or actually getting schoolwork done. Social media can also stop these kids from actually doing hobbies they like. I think that there are ways parents can regulate their kids being on a phone ore even having one in the first place, I’m one to think a student should get a phone by the time they go into middle school. I also think that parents should look at what their kids are looking at on social media to determine whether its harmful or not to their kid.
Now, lets dive into some positives of social media, there’s not a lot. Social media can increase diversity and inclusion, kids can see more people and what the real world is like in a way. Kids/teens tend to feel more accepted because of social media, they see others like them and that what makes them happy. I’m one to think that social media is good until you make it bad, you are responsible for what you see on the internet, if your not looking it up and just stumble upon it, that’s a different story, but as we said parents are also partially responsible for what their kids are looking at on the internet.
https://masterofed-sopa.tulane.edu/articles/impact-of-social-media-on-students/
https://childmind.org/article/how-using-social-media-affects-teenagers/
