Social media harms However, social media use can also negatively affect teens, distracting them, disrupting their sleep, and exposing them to bullying, rumor spreading, unrealistic views of other people’s lives and peer pressure. The risks might be related to how much social media teens use.
Social media has given teens the ability to instantly connect with others and share their lives through photos, videos and status updates. Teens themselves describe these platforms as a key tool for connecting and maintaining relationships, being creative, and learning more about the world.
Social media can affect teenagers in both positive and negative ways. Research has found that social media use can affect self-esteem, and make typical teenage pressure and bullying worse, but it can also connect isolated teens and help them find supportive networks.
The negative aspects of social media
However, multiple studies have found a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts. Social media may promote negative experiences such as: Inadequacy about your life or appearance.
Social media may provide individuals with a platform that overcomes barriers of distance and time, allowing them to connect and reconnect with others and thereby expand and strengthen their in-person networks and interactions. Indeed, there is some empirical evidence supporting this.
It is easy to become addicted, and research shows that students who spend too much time on social media can suffer from poor sleep, eye fatigue, negative body image, depression, anxiety, cyberbullying, and more.
10 Disadvantages of Social Networking
- Lacks Emotional Connection.
- Gives People a License to be Hurtful.
- Decreases Face-to-Face Communication Skills.
- Conveys Inauthentic Expression of Feelings.
- Diminishes Understanding and Thoughtfulness.
- Causes Face-to-Face Interactions to Feel Disconnected.
- Facilitates Laziness.
Pros & Cons of Social Media
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Put yourself out there in a good way | Posting inappropriate statuses/pictures |
| Connect with students in other educational systems | Making people feel bad about themselves |
| Make new friends/communicate or connect with old friends/family | Cyberbullying |
Many people enjoy staying connected on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Yet a growing body of research is finding that excessive use—more than three hours a day—can exacerbate mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression, in teens and young adults.
While the researchers state that their results do not indicate that social media platforms are “killing people,” as Biden said, they do find, however, that those who relied on Facebook for COVID-19 news had substantially lower vaccination rates than the overall U.S. population.
YES! Social media is a great way to connect with people who you may not see all the time. It’s also great for making friends. Social media helps you build connections with kids who have the same interests.
The Positive Effects of Social Media
- Building Relationships and Staying Connected. Social media can make it easy to find groups of like-minded people or make new friends.
- Finding Your Voice.
- Showing Empathy and Kindness.
- Offering Support.
- Better Communication.
- Spreading News.
- Building a Business.
- Establishing Authority.
More than two thirds (70%) people said social media companies do more harm than good, while only one in five said it is the other way around. That is according to a new poll from Quinnipiac University.
Social media plays an important role in every student’s life. It is often easier and more convenient to access information, provide information and communicate via social media. Tutors and students can be connected to each other and can make good use of these platforms for the benefit of their learning and teaching.
Social media is harmful to school students: School students are very young and their minds are not much developed hence they cannot differentiate between good and bad. They can easily get influenced and distracted. It might also lead to biased, prejudiced views about people or issues they hardly have any knowledge of.
Cons: Why is social media bad?
- Online vs Reality. Social media itself is not the problem.
- Increased usage. The more time spent on social media can lead to cyberbullying, social anxiety, depression, and exposure to content that is not age appropriate.
- Social Media is addicting.
- Fear of Missing Out.
- Self-image issues.
“Children who regularly use online social networks, such as Facebook, tend to obtain lower scores in math, reading, and science than students who never or hardly ever use these sites,” the study found.And the more students used social media, the worse their scores tended to be.
Social media helps you maintain relationships by making it easy to reach family and friends who live far; it closes the gap created by distance. You may have not seen someone for a few years but newsfeed updates keep you in the loop of what is happening in their lives.
Multiply 28 hours by one month and that gives you approximately 112 hours. Multiply by one year and you have 1336 hours. That is the number of hours you waste on social media every year if you spend 4 hours on it daily. Some people spend up to six or seven hours a day on average.
Children and teenagers use social media to have fun, make and maintain friendships, share interests, explore identities and develop relationships with family. It’s an extension of their offline and face-to-face interactions. For older teenagers especially, it’s often a key part of how they connect with friends.
What are the negative effects of media?
7 Negative Effects of Social Media on People and Users
- Depression and Anxiety. Do you spend several hours per day browsing through social media?
- Cyberbullying. Image Credit: HighwayStarz/Depositphotos.
- FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)
- Unrealistic Expectations.
- Negative Body Image.
- Unhealthy Sleep Patterns.
- General Addiction.
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