The Negative Effects Of Social Media

Erik Qualman once said, “We don't have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it?” (Qualman, Erik). This quote clearly states that social media has become a part of today's society and that avoiding it would be nearly impossible without total isolation. The quote also ask a rhetorical question that simply queries, how properly do we use social media? Qualman made it obvious that we’re not being as effective as we should be on social media. Social media began it’s thriving point, with the 21st generation, around 2005 when the website Facebook was created. At that point and time, the website was mainly for communication purposes. Whereas now, all social media has formed into an entertainment center. Unfortunately, the original intentions of social media have reached an ultimate downfall. Social media can be used in several harmful ways; such as, the unintentional way, the intentional way, and the way that people tend to forget about.

To begin with, social media for kids and teens ultimately has only negative effects because

Social media has become a part of our life, and no one can imagine living without it. Social media has grown a lot over the several years. Young individuals have always thought that social media is a marvelous piece of technology, but they never think about the negative effects of ‘like’ culture, which contributes to conformity and other negative consequences. The article, The Insidious Evils of ‘Like’ Culture, written by Neil Strauss, tells us about to what people can go to get more “likes.”

Teens are at more risk today because of social media then in the last 5,000 years of human existence. In the 1990’s the popularity of the internet changed the way people received information. Before social media teens developed their relationships by playing with each other on playgrounds, at the park, or in the neighborhood. With the expansion of social media teens soon became addicted to using various applications and websites. Technology is advancing so quickly that the dangers of social media are unpredictable. The growth of social media for teens is harmful because it is threatening teens well-being.

Social media affect teenagers in more ways than one would think. It affects their mental and emotional health. Andrea McDaniels is an adolescent psychiatrist that is trying to figure out all the consequences social media is causing. While social media hasn’t been around for a while it still has countless negative effects. McDaniels states,“"I think almost any adolescent who is involved in any social media has probably had some negative effect from it””(1).McDaniels acknowledges that social media plus teens have not been around that long, but it is, in fact, causing negative effects such as anxiety or depression. She gathered information from parents and teens who would tell her all the ways it affects them, so she came to the conclusion that everyone has at one point or another had something affect them mentally. In sum mentally and emotionally social media is presenting new health problems for teenagers, that need to be taken into consideration when using social media.

What effects does social media have on on teens? After reading the book Mediated by Thomas de Zengotita I had realized the over the too use of social media, by teens today, social media is leading to unhealthy mental and physical side effects. It is important to publicly state these effects in order to alert parents of what is happening to their teen. Through reading several articles on the subject, I quickly found and examined these unfavorable side effects, by constantly using social media people are becoming more isolated, loosing interest in their education, relationships, and experiencing several other psychological issues.

Young adults aged 14 – 26 are the demographic which make up the vast majority of social media users and thus are the most effected by social media. Social media has negative effects on young adults. The use of social media by young adults has harmful psychological effects, creates antisocial effects, and negatively consumes time.

Studies have shown that the average person now spends more time each day on their phone and computer than they do sleeping according to Nick McGillivray (“What are the Effects of Social Media on Youth?). Social has become part of our social society, especially for the many youths. There are positives to being on social media and also equal amounts of danger that come with using social networking sites, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. These social networking sites also have effects on today’s youth by altering the way they behave, the way they learn, in not only a classroom setting but also in the real world setting, and the way that they socialize with their peers and others.

Even though social media allows social interactions between family and friends most believe that it should keep them from feeling depressed. Without thinking about this American dream, they paint for families and friends, think realistically most families are waiting for you to mess up or fail in life and being associated with you on social media is just a way for them to keep up with you. Social media has been becoming more useful; it's been changing a lot of families in a very negative way (Medrano 1). This proves that since social media had been made into a big deal today its ruining almost everything and everyone that is associated with it. Even though it can be used to keep in touch it’s terrible because it causes stress on people by making them believe everything they post must be perfect or their family member will talk badly about them. It also keeps competition between friends and that just ruin their relationship maybe even be the cause of those friends never talking again. Watching other family member and friend’s social media account can make someone feel less of person or make them feel like they didn’t accomplish enough because the other is posting so much successful stuff. Following those family and friends on social media brings nothing but headaches and depression.

Social media has impacted society in countless ways. It's a convenient tool to use when sharing ideas or speaking to friends and family. Social media allows individuals to grasp information and current issues that are going on across the world. Generation X and Baby Boomers see social media as an alternative for their kids to stay home from the dangers that they may encounter outside. However it can become problematic and cause severe consequences. An unfavorable post can cause an individual to take their life.

Individuals all have a choice whether or not to do social media, but the real situation is how they do and what they do on it that gives negative effects in today's world. People are all entitled to their own opinion and deciding whether or not social media affects today's society is all based on the background of it that represents social media in such a way. The first social media site was created in 1997 called Six Degrees. It allowed users to create a profile and become friends with other users on it as well. As social media keeps getting bigger and bigger over the years, the effect it has on their mental and emotional health will keep getting bigger and bigger. So how far will one go into this so-called social media popularity? Social Media creates a negative effect on today’s world by creating problems such as bullying, privacy matters, and poor representation of the media.

Although they are a staple in many people’s lives, social media and technology may end up adding stress to a high school teen’s daily life. There are many different reasons for the mounting stress on students. Overall, social media and technology can cause cyberbullying, be a distraction in classrooms, and cause a lack of sleep for teens.

Kids of all ages now in days are exposed to technology which scares us all. Although many parents worry that their preschoolers or younger kids are being harmed by this kind of exposure, the kids most affected by technology now in days are teenagers or adolescents. Social media has become so vital to teenagers; consequently, promoting anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, and an unexplainable amount of cyber-bullying.

Erik Qualman once said, “We don’t have the choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it.” According to Merriam Webster, social medias are forms of electronic communication through which people create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, etc. Certainly, most high schools students own more than one account on the Internet. Because younger generations have little understanding of social medias, they are more likely to be controlled by the Internet. For instance, bad manners out there might take advantage of them. Nowadays, adolescents are more likely to be on their phones rather than enjoy the sun out there. For this reason, teens are less experienced the state of being teenagers. Social media has a huge impact on our future generations because it causes addiction, distraction, and 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