Negative Effects Of Social Media And Smartphones

Kardaras, Nicolas. "Generation Z: Online and at Risk?." Scientific American Mind, vol. 27, no. 5, Sep/Oct 2016, pp. 64-9. MasterFILE Premier. Kardars discuss generation z use of social media affecting them negatively. He opens his article with a story of Heidi who becomes addicted to social media when her school issues her a Chromebook. Before Heidi is issued the laptop, she was a sweet innocent girl and after having it for a semester she became someone her parents could not recognize. He states that social media is a “perfect storm” for humans because having a social connection key to “happiness and health”. Having the ability to always use social media leads to hyper texting the illusion of a real connection making it hard for teens to have face to face conversations, making a teens become “glow kid[s]“, someone who is raised on mostly digital social interactions. Facebook depression” can result in the teen to have lower grades and behavior problems in teens. He concludes his article with facts proving that Facebook can become addictive in some people. This source helps support my thesis that Facebook affects teens mental health.

Next time you are out in public, notice how many people are immersed in their cellular devices. I bet you will see a lot, and most likely these people are on their social media accounts. According to Brooke Lusk, the database and media manager for the Prevention Researcher, social media can be defined as, “an aspect of the internet which allows individuals and groups to create and publish online content, share the content, and interact about it.” These days, people are very involved with the internet and social media. Some think this is a benefit while others think this is a detriment for many reasons. Social media allows people to stay connected and explore new things, but there are many negative aspects that can affect self esteem, cause

Although social media seems to be a great way to connect to people, it gives teenagers a false sense of reality. In fact, there is a phenomenon that technology has created among teenagers known as FOMO, or the Fear Of Missing Out. One source by the Art of Healing titled “FOMO: The Fear Of Missing Out”, states, “FOMO is affecting one in two teens, with those who are heavy social media users (connecting 5+ times per day) most affected. Of all teens, 59 per cent feel the need to keep track of friends when they are on holiday, and 51 per cent feel that it is important to post status updates when they are having a good time. Just under half (45%) feel that their peers are having more rewarding experiences. Fifty-one per cent feel anxious when

In recent years, it has sadly become true that technology is getting smarter while humans are getting dumber. Due to the overwhelming success of social media as a new form of communication, the world is experiencing a massive increase of media exposure, especially among teenagers. Indeed, people are beginning to appreciate the simplicity of the old days; kids used to spend more time outdoors, making face to face interactions with both people and nature. Nowadays, the whole world in teenagers’ eyes seems to fit into the screens of their smartphones, making it harder for parents to control the type of content their kids are exposed to every day. Even though social media was initially designed to bring people closer together, It has actually turned into a problem instead of a solution; kids today are suffering from behavioral disorders that are not supposed to occur at such a young age. Despite the advantages of social media, it seems to influence teenagers negatively, causing them to lack social skills and turn into concernedly depressed, constantly bored shades of human beings.

Older generations don’t realize how much technology has affected this generation of teenagers, along with the social media that comes along with the technology. As stated in “How Social Media Changed Teens’ Lives Forever”; “Negative posts or comments also can do great damage to a teen’s self-esteem.” (Ashley Black, Thomas Atseff and Colleen Kaveney) While many parents think social media is just a way to connect with others, many teenagers take it for granted. For example, “quitting social media because it made her miserable and obsessed with appearing perfect online”, is what a teenager felt about social media and what it has done to her. Though many think that social media is a great way to connect, teenagers take it to another level.

The article “Is social media ruining our children?” is an effective work as a whole. Overall, Sreedhar does a good job by supporting his opinion on how social media have bear responsibility for anxiety and depression in adolescents, teenagers, and young adults. And he uses logos by the survey conducted by credible source and proposal a clear solution from experts.

73% of teenagers use what seems to be harmless, social media. Although it’s main function is to provide online communities for friends to interact on the internet, social media is a direct link to developing mental illnesses. Mental health is a very important issue, especially in the millennial generation, because it can impact a life drastically. Mental well-being is at risk when using social media because it flaunts what society considers “perfection” to be, can become easily addictive and social net workings can be a hostile environment. All of these issues that are promoted by social media or that exists there can seriously deteriorate mental health and drive illnesses forward.

In an ever-changing world, technology has pervaded almost every aspect of the average person’s life. Along with advances in technology has emerged the rise of social media sites, where individuals can take pictures of events, update statuses, mark the places they have been, and the foods they have eaten. Young adults have been at the forefront of using these social networking sites to display their actions and aspects of their lives to the public world. While one may think these sites are intended to bring joy to others, and put people in connection with one another, the display of other’s lives may have a negative effect on the viewer. Among groups who may be negatively affected by these social networking sites are college students, who face a new environment, and commonly experience a “fear of missing out” from viewing the lives of others. While these social media sites may be fine in small amounts, the increased consumption of multiple social media sites may have a negative effect on the happiness of college students, which may produce a link to depressive symptoms.

“Today’s teens see more of what life has to offer — both good and bad — on television, at school, in magazines and on the Internet” (“Depression in Teens”). When teenagers see how negative life can get, it sometimes makes them feel as though they cannot get out of their situations. Because of television, literature, and music, they have the opportunity to be exposed to the good of life as well. “Adjusting to the rigors of middle and high school as well as hormonal changes are certainly contributing factor” (Abbondanza). Depression can affect hormones, emotions, and even thoughts. It can be dangerous to the person struggling, especially if they are not receiving help. “Adolescence is always an unsettling time, with the many physical, emotional, psychological and social changes that accompany this stage of life” (“Depression in Teens”). Many adults today would say that their teenage years were some of the most difficult times of their lives and that they would not go back to them if they were given the opportunity. Although a lot is still the same, one big change in the teenage world is social media. With things like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, teenagers today are more connected than ever. Even though this can be a wonderful thing, it can have unfavorable effects. “Those who log on, particularly during night time, are highly 'emotionally invested' and therefore are susceptible to suffering from low self-esteem, anxiety

Teens suffer from depression more than they have ever before because social media causes them to be exposed to many things that cause self-esteem

Next, social media can affect a teenager’s psychological well-being. Just by signing into an online social media site it has become an addiction. For many reasons, the use of social media for a teenager can affect how they think of themselves. According to a research done by PLoS ONE, they decided to use experience sampling to address how interacting with Facebook affects the well-being of a teenager. Participants were messaged 5 times per day for 14 days containing a link to a survey asking about their mood or Facebook usage. After the data was examined it was found that interacting with Facebook led people to feel worse during the day and decreasing happiness. (Kross 3) The source also mentioned that

Social media is a part of everyone’s life. Social media issues has impacted in every young person’s life, whether it’s a relationship on Snapchat, having public fights with friends on Twitter, or throwing and inviting people to post party details on Facebook. Whether it’s at school or at home, social media impacted many people’s lives with its advance technology and fast speed messages. Social media has targeted teens into keeping a status online so that everyone who uses social media can see too. But sometimes teens get into social media so much, that they forget what is more important than looking at a phone. Teens’ relationship to social media addiction is a big issue because teens develop depression, which makes them forget who they are.

Social media has been a great tool that can be used for business and communicating with family across the world, but, the youth in America that have grown up with it in their hands seem to be having mental issues that could be more serious as they get older. Being raised in a generation where social media is so prevalent has shown to have negative affects when it comes to communicating to other individuals in their age group. Insecurities become more relevant because of lack of real life human interaction. Social anxiety is an issue that individuals have been dealing with from many years, however because of the online platform of social media individual are becoming lonesome and therefore unhappy and sad. Social media has changed the way we communicate to our friends and families across the world by giving us an online universal platform that anyone and everyone can use, however, by giving this online platform individuals seem to enjoy talking to others through a phone or laptop screen rather than in person face to face which has made social anxiety and insecurities a larger problem in the youth of our society.

To begin, social media is an enormous factor in how technology can make society more alone. Almost every teenager in America has social media and it is a huge part of most of their lives in some way. Most kids spend numerous hours on their cell phone scrolling through social media and in those hours, kids constantly compare themselves to other people. They see people on Instagram who they want to look like or see people’s tweets on Twitter who they want to be as funny as. This constant comparison from social media starts to give people mental diseases, such as depression. Social media is starting to have a direct influence on depression. For example, an article from TIME magazine states, “Among kids who used devices five or more hours a day, 48% had at least one suicide-related outcome” (Heid). This statistic explains how kids who use electronics more often, have more of a tendency to feel alone and have thoughts of depression.

Since the development of the Internet, technology has vastly changed the way we live and communicate. This technological revolution we have gone through has brought about many new things into our daily lives. The birth of social media has completely changed technology, and they way we use it. We can now communicate with each other from anywhere around the world. We can update people on our current location. We can have a conversation over text. We can inform people exactly what we are doing at any given time. Social media has boomed in our society, and is only getting more and more popular. With sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Google +, people can communicate and update the world with whatever they see fit. Millions of people use social media every single say, with many of them using it multiple times a day. Teens in today’s world have been attracted the most towards social media, and use it more often than any other age group. The temptation to always be on social media is very prevalent in many teens’ lives. It distracts teens from the more important things life has to offer like a good education, or a job. This technological epidemic may seem like a fantastic thing to some people, but I view it differently. Kids today are heavily abusing social media, and using it to harm or hurt people. I personally believe that social media is an increasing negative effect on teens in our world today because of the depression