Social media is quite possibly one of the most toxic inventions to come upon our latest generations.  Over the past ten years, it has revealed itself as a mode of connectivity and engagement with a fresh twist, but it has led to the rupture of an unforeseen issue that has poisoned much of the contemporary youth.  With a misguided marketing plan, the founding fathers of social media created a digital world that has a skewed target market partially because a target market was never truly instituted.  This premature issue has led to an increase in curiosity of the digital realm and has become an enticement to a vast amount of teenagers.  With this, has come a sliver of benefit while a strong disadvantage has been stormed.  The digital age has led to a decrease in health, decrease in communication, has brought about psychological issues, and has kept the young people of today from truly knowing what life without or away from a screen is like.  The misuse of social media has tainted our youth, and become an epidemic leading to an unfortunate deterioration of today's young people. 

A piece published in 2011 by the American Academy of Pediatrics explores various social media outlets and the effects they take on adolescents.  It compiles research from different pediatric specialists who have done experiments and tests with young people as their guinea pigs in order to determine what "issues" social media is causing for these adolescents.  The authors use this piece as an introduction to the realm of social media and the youth by providing ground-level information to the reader.  Author Gwenn O'Keefe found that "22% of teenagers log on to their favorite social media site more than 10 times a day," and that "more than half of adolescents log on to a social media site more than once a day" (O'Keefe).  This statistic was recorded in 2011, and percent has jumped to a jaw-dropping 74% since then (Lenhart).  Within a span of four years, social media usage amongst teenagers has gone up by 52%.  These statistics have are true for the youth of America, but the rates of foreign, adolescent social media usage are also increasing at a rapid rate.  As these rates continue to skyrocket, it is a continuous reminder that this is becoming an epidemic amongst the modern youth.

Katie Holliday, author of the piece, "US youth frustrated with 'oversharing' on social media," lays groundwork for the root of this so-called epidemic -- the youth's obsession with posting their lives on social media.  She makes claims about today's kids (teenagers mainly) "taking shelter in social media" through her evidence of data from a survey she conducted.  This reliance that teens have on social media roots from a feeling of necessity to make their lives more interesting, or make themselves' seem "cooler."  Holliday stated that on social media outlets, teens " ... felt like they could not portray their own "real selves" on these sites" because they were too absorbed into building a grand facade that swaps their true identity for a more intriguing one.  Much of her claim translates to the idea that there is a jading of personality because teens are trying to make themselves appear to be something they are not, generally something to make them appear on a "higher level" of social status.  Many of the teens that were part of Holliday's survey admitted that they would be better off without social media, but the reputation of an approachable lifestyle is more crucial than inward happiness (Holliday).

Family income plays a major role in the numbers that go into the statistics when it comes to teens using social media.  An article from the Pew Research Center shows that;

"Teens from less well-off households (those earning less than $50,000) are more likely than others to say they use Facebook the most: 49% of these teens say they use it most often, compared with 37% of teens from somewhat wealthier families (those earning $50,000 or more). 

Teens from more affluent households are somewhat more likely than those from the least affluent homes to say they visit Snapchat most often, with 14% of those from families earning more than $75,000 saying Snapchat is their top site, compared with 7% of those whose families earn less than $30,000 annually. Twitter shows a similar pattern by income, with the wealthiest teens using Twitter more than their least well-to-do peers." 

So what exactly does this mean?  Amanda Lenhart uses family income to determine what social media platforms are used the most and by whom.  Evidently it is clear that the majority of the not-so-wealthy gravitate towards Facebook, while the wealthier folks are taking an interest to Twitter and Snapchat.  This observation is rather vague, but the connection depicts that the issue is so deeply rooted that there are even certain outlets that specific income classes turn to.  Facebook is seen a dying social media platform, whereas Twitter and Snapchat are all about the instant gratification with their concise means of posting material so it is the new and popular thing to turn to.  All in all, regardless of income status, the rate at which teens are gravitating towards social media is rapidly increasing (Lenhart). 

The higher income also references the wealthiest of American teens, which is a very clear reflection of celebrity teens' usage of social media.  Celebrity influence is one of the most powerful forces on adolescents today as they strive to conform to the standards these celebrities place on society.  Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Gigi Hadid, Sadie Robertson, and Moises Aries (to name a few) are some example of young celebrities that adolescents idolize.  Kylie Jenner's infamous Botox injected lips stirred up the internet when the "Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge" became a fad, in which young girls would put their lips into a water bottle or cup sucking out the air to swell their lips, resembling Kylie Jenner, going on to post pictures online.  After some minor accidents with this, and the internet had its run with the fad, it became a controversial topic because girls were doing everything they could to alter their images to have lips like Kylie Jenner.  This is just one example of the extremes the young people go through to be a part of the bandwagon and to fit in.

Brushing the matters of income, social stature and celebrity power aside, social media (amongst the youth) does have some hint of benefit to it.  An article by Karen Goff from The Washington Times lays out the benefits of social media on the youth.  Goff uses research from doctors and other "digital youth" researchers to compile information on why social media really is not such a bad thing for our new generations.  Goff states that "young people using social media does not mean they are lazy or unmotivated, but that they are using a new and unique outlet to express themselves" in order to showcase their connectivity and creativity (Goff).  In his TedTalk titled "How Social Media Can Make History," Clay Shirky expresses his belief that social media is an extremely beneficial advantage for our young people.  He makes the point that during an earthquake in China in 2008, students were trapped in a school, but many of them still had internet access to where they could live tweet/post to Facebook to update their families and news sources on their state of safety.  He uses this example prominently to show that these young people were using social media to be journalists and essentially save themselves. However, in the piece from Social Media Today author Sarah Snow begs the question "is social media bad for us?"  Snow presents an argument from both sides -- social media being good a thing and social media being a bad thing.  Snow's argument weighs more heavily on her "Social Media is Essentially Bad" argument.  Social media can certainly be a useful tool for connectivity, but it is being heavily abused by young people.

With the growing dependence on social media though, comes a problematic, virtual world where things like sexting, and cyberbullying come together to create psychological issues that can have a lasting effect on young minds.  According to Britannica, sexting is defined as "the sending of sexually explicit photographs by cell phone" (Stalking).  Sexting has become a very common practice amongst teenagers and is one of the most common reasons they are found to be in trouble for a cell-phone related problems.  This is the act of sending nude/sexual photographs to their peers which can be counted as child pornography in a court of law.  The senders of these photographs usually do not keep in mind the repercussions at hand, the most prominent one being that the photographs can be leaked.  Instagram and Snapchat are both social media that are based around photography/quick means of sharing pictures, but Facebook and Twitter also have the same features within their messaging systems.  These media have "massive databases that store every single photograph that is sent and shared" so in essence, if one thinks he has removed it from the medium or thinks that the one second snap is gone forever, it is certainly not (Social Movement).  Everything is stored for safety and security purposes, but the pictures that are out there can also be retrieved in the event that proof is needed for a lawsuit of some sort.  The act of sexting is also a major leader in cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying is the act of harassing someone online rather than in person.  It is the 21st century way of bullying a fellow peer with the aim to belittle him/her.  One of the most widely known cyberbullying stories was done by CNN through a serious call "#Being13."  The series was made up of about five journalists, Anderson Cooper being the front runner, who researched and interviewed a group of eighth graders in the U.S. about their ties to social media.  One thirteen year old stated that she would prefer "not eating for a week over having her phone taken away" (Hadad).  Eighth-graders all across the United States allowed their activity on their various social media accounts to be monitored for research in 2015.  Different habitual aspects of why teens were so into checking their social media so frequently was the main test being done in this case; the research and studies brought back some interesting data.  While the vast majority of the teens ("61% of them") were mainly concerned with the number of likes and comments they received on their posts, less than half of them were checking to see if their peers were either having fun without them, or checking in to see if anyone was negatively of them on social media.  The breakdown came to the fact that these teens were fishing for gratification from "likes," and searching for conflict to address amongst their peers (Hadad).   

Morgan, an eighth grader in the study discussed with the journalists about why these teens do this and she noted that, "what they like to call it is 'exposing.' It's either, like, an ex-girlfriend or an ex-boyfriend, the majority of the time, and what they do is post ... naked pictures of the person ... " in reference to things such as why her peers were sexting, or sending naked photographs of each other to each other.  Instances as such have led to many tragedies of teenagers committing suicide because the psychological burden of continually being harassed was too much for them to carry.  It is a vicious cycle that these children follow because even at a young age for them, a breakup is a difficult thing to undergo, as they feel that they have hit maturity when in reality, they are living in a jaded world that has been painted by outside influences including social media.  

From a worldwide aspect, in "The Negatives of Social Media on African Youth," writer, Akua Djanie discusses the negative affect that is being seen amongst the youth of Africa.  She beings her argument with some benefits of social media stating that "social media is providing all manner of opportunities," in terms of business, promotion, and other entrepreneurial aspects (Djanie).  Djanie feels that social media is certainly beneficial, especially for the youth in third world countries to be in touch with the world, however, Djanie then files into her argument expressing her deep concern that social media has tainted the African youth she knew because "African children were respectful," but they have seemingly become irresponsible, disrespectful people.  The writer explains that there has been a massive decrease in cultural means of respecting their fellow people and especially elders, and she believes it is all because of social media.  She points out that there a loss of respect towards political figures when she notes that " ...  young African children who should know better, now see nothing wrong in insulting their elders, especially the African politician" in reference to things such as memes, and other "disrespectful" pictures much of the youth has taken pleasure in (Djaine).  Her argument is a clear depiction of an outsider looking in on the virtual world the youth is building for themselves, as she explains her disdain towards it.  Djanie states that "African children are losing traditional respect for their elders because of social media" through her first hand observations of the new generation (Djaine).  She shares that

 "African children were respectful. They didn't answer back to adults. Everybody knew their place and adhered to the social rules. And even if things didn't seem fair, African children accepted that was the order of the day--that as an African child, there were certain dos and don'ts you were born into. No fuss. No questions asked. Just acceptance." 

Her point here is that African children once adhered to this submission towards their elders that for some reason, social media is taking away from them.  Her thoughts are that the influences of celebrities and the intrigue of the digital world are corrupting the minds of the adolescents because they surf through pictures, posts, and watch videos that are meant to be humorous, but in actuality take a toll on their morals.  Djaine finds that there  The information Djaine provides can be seen as relevant because she is looking into parts of Africa that are developing at a more rapid pace and she sees that technology is already negatively (her argument) affecting the youth.  

Teenagers have found their way of navigating the internet and tailoring social media to create a world of their own.  In "Teenagers and the Internet," by Suren Ramasubbu, he explains the interactions of today's teenagers and their interactions with the internet.  Ramasubbu uses statistics and hyperlinks to build his informative argument on the topic.  He also lays out the "dangers" of social media explaining that "exposure to inappropriate content as they navigate the tricky waters of social media" (Ramasubbu).  Ramasubbu is the co-founder and CEO of the most widely-used internet safety company for computers and mobile devices, called Mobicip.  He researches the use of social media amongst teens and has found that " ... problems such as social network-induced obesity, Internet addiction and sleep deprivation ... " are all problems that continue to occur within the teenage community (Influence of Social Media on Teenagers).  

Young people using social media also do not understand the privacy precautions they must take to keep themselves safe online, because the internet is truly not a safe place.  Once they put any small amount of information out there is on display for anyone who has internet access.  Often times, websites will require an age limit of 18 and up in order to create an account, but this doesn't stop many teens from forging an age but still putting other true information online.  The information these minor provide "can be easily accessed by businesses, stalkers, and internet hackers" (Etheridge).  A teenager that is heading off to college with a vast amount of questionable information/postings on their social media platforms can be affected by this because colleges and jobs will search for this questionable information and turn down a potential student or employee.  Hackers and stalkers tap into the databases of social media sites all the time to obtain information, pictures, and other blackmail to use on minors.  This is where the darker secrets of social media come up and usually end in stolen identity, leaked messages/photographs, kidnappings, and even murders. 

The misuse of social media has certainly tainted our youth, and become an epidemic leading to the unfortunate demeaning of today's young people.  It is an issue that has taken over our youth and taken a harsh toll on the sanity of them.  This issue goes beyond not 'liking' the fact that our youth is submerging themselves into technology, but the fact that they are simply taking it too far by abusing it and becoming the demon that social media is.  It is unfortunate to see something that should be used for good be used to harm other people and be used for self-harm.  Social media awareness is a vital part of our growing world, especially for our young people, in order for them to understand how to properly use what has been given to them.

