
Tobacco, alcohol, and drugs are just a few major addictions that can harm someone's life. High school students are an age group that seems to abuse these addictions the most. They can also be easily addicted to anything since they are at such a young age. According to National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse seventeen percent of students are either smoking, drinking or doing drugs on school grounds during the school day. How do children find out about these life-threatening addictions and why would they feel the need to consume them. Social media is one of the main reasons or "Gateways" leading students in high school to drink, smoke, use drugs, or even go into depression. Students who want to fit in with a certain group or feel the need to partake in these addictive activities would see a picture posted onto Facebook or Instagram and go out to do the same thing. This is a huge issue to deal with. Some people argue that social media is not harmful and that it's a great way to keep up with friends. Others argue that it can ruin children's lives and can be a great risk to them and their social life. 

Students do not only use social media for their own entertainment but for educational purposes as well. Social media has been shown to be beneficial for students to learn and be educated in a simple way. Students can share notes, graph mathematical equations, and even publish papers electronically. Web 2.0 tools which, according to dictionary.com, describes worldwide websites that emphasize user-generated content, usability and interoperability, decided to link up with social media apps. Social media uses web 2.0 technologies to communicate and share information with others. The author of this article is trying to state that social media is a big help for young students these days. They can stay interactive with school and gain help from other students.

All though some think that the interaction with school and social media may be a huge help to students, others believe it is a major cause of their behavior and addiction to alcohol, drugs, smoking etc. In the article, "Peer Influences: The Impact of Online and Offline Friendship Networks on Adolescent Smoking and Alcohol Use", they discuss that when a kid is growing up they learn and study from their peers. This article claims that social media is a big influence on adolescent teens and that it can cause them to have unhealthy behaviors. Teens try to figure out their identity by how their friends act, thinking it is the norm. Ninety percent of teenagers are engaged with online social networking like Facebook and Twitter. With these two networks kids can post images of what they are doing or what they are feeling. They usually post inappropriate images containing sexual activity, drugs, and alcohol. Because kids are trying to become part of the social norm they follow what others are doing. If they see the posts from other students drinking alcohol then they begin to think that is the social norm. A study showed that out of four hundred Myspace profiles, fifty-six contained alcohol posts and forty-nine percent of the profiles were talking about it. The content that half of the teenage users display on their profiles can highly affect the other kids who see these posts and cause them to do the same. The author of this article believes that social media states what the norm is for 

young adolescent adults and also believes that it increases teen drinking and smoking. 

Another article claims that social media is like a gateway for teen depression. The article states that social media consists of the same behaviors kids have offline like bullying, sexual conduct, and groups like cliques. Online social networks put young teenagers at risk for being cyber-bullied, which can lead to depression. Teens can post false information about another kid, which can cause embarrassment for that kid in person. There is a new term called "Facebook Depression", where teens spend too much time on Facebook and begin to experience depression from not being in contact with peers in the outside world. This then causes them to research websites on how to get help. Some of these sites convince them that alcohol and substance abuse is the way to go. The author seems biased towards social media causing teen depression. Then with the adolescents being depressed it leads them to substance abuse. 

Social media can be looked at in both directions, it can be seen as a positive for adolescent teens and it can be viewed as an incredibly dangerous source of harm them. These few articles have shown each point of view from the two sides of the argument. The research question is arguable because there are two different sides of the matter, one for social media helping teens through school and communicating with others and one side arguing that social media is a large reason of why teens are becoming addicted to drugs, smoking and alcohol. I agree with the two articles explaining the harms and dangers of social media and the impacts it can have on an adolescents life. I have already had a strong opinion about social media, so none of these articles sway me. I could revise my question to be more about the teen age group and not just high school students. 

