Cindy Muñoz/The Cougar
Although there are many interactive benefits that come with the usage of social media, it is addictive and should be limited or monitored.
The usage of social media can be detrimental to adolescents’ mental health.
“Five more minutes” is a frequent and dangerous reminder teens propose to themselves to lessen the blow. More important tasks are acknowledged but ultimately disregarded.
It’s important to recognize that there are both disadvantages and advantages that come along with using social media. There can be positivity found in that people can create or emulate one’s true identity.
However, there can also be harmful effects such as distraction, lack of sleep, cyberbullying, exposure to rumors and the notion to compare oneself to another.
Teenagers are often influenced and motivated by their peers. The number of likes they have can be correlated to what a teenager might think their worth is.
When teenagers are comparing themselves to each other, it becomes difficult to steer clear of negativity.
While there is a possibility that the negativity is not because of the media itself, it has been proven that social media inspires things like anxiety, loneliness and depression.
Few can resist the temptation of using social media. It is unfortunate that the effects interactive media has on teens can often be more negative than positive.
Social media platforms are inherently designed by their respective companies to be addictive. Some even think that social media addiction should be treated in the same fashion as any harmful physical addiction like cigarettes and alcohol abuse.
Creating these unbreakable addictions is unforgivable because the harm they cause teens is objectively demeaning and exploitative. Moreover, social media companies should be perpetrated for their intentionally malicious and addictive purposes.
It goes further than a teenager’s mental health. With the emergence of media becoming necessary to interact with peers and entertain oneself, social networking has made its way into people’s work life.
This issue penetrates beyond likes being viewed as currency. Platforms integrating into occupational life is easy because of their convenient and happening nature.
While there are several potentially positive impacts that come along with the usage of social media, social media is addictive and should be recognized as an alarming threat.
A broadened perspective would help understand the harm in the instant gratification that comes along with the hypnotizing scroll of dance routines at three in the morning.
Myra Mohiuddin is a freshman art major that can be reached at [email protected]
