Koehn
Diana Koehn
Mr. Bradley
English 11
18 May 2018
Influence of Social Media
“Social media is addictive precisely because it gives us something which the real world lacks: it gives us immediacy, direction, a sense of clarity, and value as an individual” (David Amerland). As David, so brilliantly stated social media gives us what reality cannot. In this modern world of new technology around every corner, and updates every second, it can be overwhelming. It can also be amazing; you never have to worry about missing the next big thing when it is right in your face. This creates a society that is so connected everyone can know when something terrible happens or when the extraordinary occurs. Not only is this wonderful it can be scary. With everything out in your face right as soon as it happens, is it teaching the next generation to have less patience or become mindless drones to a small device. One has to wonder what is actually happening in all of this, is it the best thing to worst thing to happen to humanity or is it mass paranoia.
Social media has been the cause of a recent rise in many different health concerns. “Many experts have described a rise in sleeplessness, loneliness, worry, and dependence among teenagers — a rise that coincides with the release of the first iPhone 10 years ago. One study found that 48 percent of teens who spend five hours per day on an electronic device have at least one suicide risk factor, compared to 33 percent of teens who spend two hours a day on an electronic device. We’ve all heard anecdotes, too, of teens being reduced to tears from the constant communication and comparisons that social media invites” (“Social Media and Teen Anxiety.”). With these mental health concerns also comes poor self-esteem, anxiety, insecurity, and sadness. All this while there is also no break from this technology. These things added together create a deadly equation. Parents now are also a cause of this stress as well. When a parent suspect’s drama often they just take the phone away, which can lead to many of the symptoms, spoke of earlier, similar to if you cut cold turkey from hard drugs. It isn’t enough to just say that parents taking the phones away are the cause of it, it also comes from the child seeing the parents with their own phone addiction after being told to get off your phone.
Also, stress, self-esteem, anxiety, and insecurity can come from other areas on social media than just the lack of social media. In a world where beauty and the next big trend is everything it isn’t hard to believe that young girls and boys are being stressed that they aren’t good looking enough or don’t have the right clothes to be popular. This is extremely bad for the brain because it creates all these areas of stress in their life that is dangerous for young kids. “Ads for Keep It Real also state that 53 percent of 13-year-old girls have issues with how their bodies look, a percentage that rises to 78 percent when girls turn 17. Resea...
