Why Teenagers Are Addicted to Social Media and How It Affects Them

Are people blind to what’s in front of them because of a screen? The use of social media has grown exponentially to the extent of engaging 3.1 billion users worldwide, with more than half of society linked to a form of social media. All these posts and gossip on social media are just extra unsolicited information for your brain. While social media can be fun, it can also ruin you when you become "Addicted". For teens, the problem is even worse, with them spending approximately 9 hours a day on social media. This essay will discuss the negative effects of teenagers addicted to social media.

Fifty years ago, you would never see people stuck to a screen on their phones. There wasn’t even such a thing as technology then. People would use only snail mail to communicate with each other. This would take days even weeks. Twenty years ago, you would always see youth playing outside, exercising and having fun. In today’s society, we don’t see any of that. Teenagers would much rather stay at home and log on to their social media than head outside. It’s all about technology and gossip on social media. We need to face up to this crisis and do something about it. This generation needs to learn that they are lucky because back then people never had social media. It was hard, so they should learn not to abuse the technology. Otherwise it will lead to them being the worse generation ever.

One of the main reasons for teenagers to spend so much time on social media is because they have a fear of missing out (FOMO). This is caused when teenagers view their friends’ posts, forming a type of anxiety that you get when you’re scared of missing out on a positive experience or emotions that someone else is getting. This is reflected through Dr Orlando’s research. Joanne Orlando, a researcher in technology and learning at Western Sydney University, said “people checked their phone, on average, every 12 minutes when bored or procrastinating, while teenagers fear being left out of social activities”.

The development of social media has created a new way for facilitating daily information and communication needs. Social interaction skills require daily practice. Nowadays teens are engaging more online than they do in person. The addiction to social media has become a habit, and a bad habit. Teens are starting to feel more confident texting online, behind a screen, rather than speaking to people face to face. Human connection is a powerful tool. Having the confidence and ability to speak to someone in real life is a skill that will last a lifetime. Without this it will become extremely hard for teens to interact with others in the future. More than two-thirds of teens say they would rather communicate with their friends online than in person recent studies show by The wall Street Journal. Also, 32% of young people who said their favourite way to talk to friends is face-to-face. This study alarmingly shows how teens lack communication skills due to the extreme use of social media. This also reflects how teens are blinded to the real world because of a screen.

The growth of social media has left many youngsters vulnerable to online bullying. As we all know, social media seems to be a harmless app, but what some don’t see and are blinded to, is that there are serious mental health issues caused by it.

Suicide is a continuous issue caused by cyberbullying on social media platforms, consisting of sending threatening, humiliating of intimidating messages or posting hurtful comments or images.

Teens who experience cyberbullying are two times more likely to commit suicide. Also, scientific studies have shown that 34% of teens experience cyberbullying. Some of us parents don’t even know our children are a target of cyberbullying. Most teens end up taking the pressure to themselves, leading to them committing suicide. The suicidal rates for teens in Australia are extremely high according to these statistics. Every year around 750 Australian teens between the ages of 13 and 17 commit suicide because of cyber bullying, according to Anatolian news agency. These studies have shown an extremely alarming rate of teens who end up dead because of cyberbullying.

This was another reason why social media is depraved, because of the impacts that lead to our youngsters. Committing suicide. Let’s not contribute to our generation dying, but by helping social media committing suicide, forever.

The addiction of social media is blocking teens from viewing the real world. It has blinded them from what comes along with the world rather than just viewing it off a screen. As humans we are quick to become habituated to something, but as a society we are falling, and we’re falling fast. If the addiction of social media does not come to a stop this generation’s leader will lead the next generation down the wrong path.