Social media has become an integral part of today’s culture, and it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere anytime soon. The constant desire to be connected to others has more than 81% of Americans and 1.96 billion people worldwide maintaining a profile on at least one social media website. So, what is it about Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat that has 71% of teens in this country going back to them multiple times a day? (“U.A. Population with a Social Media Profile 2017”). The prevalence and pervasiveness of this developing technology in our society allows people from all over the globe the ability to communicate for purposes of business, medical care, travel, and for personal use. With a projected increase of worldwide use expected to grow to 2.5 billion in 2018, it is clear that these advancements in technology are very accessible and influential (Egan). 

Social media is a platform for people to share personal content and to network socially. At this point though, the pressing question around our most recent social media usage is what short and long-term influence does it have on our society. Although there are research studies showing that the use of social media can foster positive outcomes, it is evident overall that the constant and habitual addiction to these websites is detrimental to one’s social skills and mental health for children and teens. First, this has become a very serious and concerning issue in our culture, especially for our children because they are beginning to have easy access to social media sites, as parents use them as babysitters and entertainment for their children. Because of this, we are raising children who are not active and are not able to adapt to daily social situations. Next, the constant social connection can become a habit, and checking social media multiple times a day results in addiction which interferes with one’s ability to focus and perform daily tasks. Lastly, mental health issues such as depression and anxiety are directly related to the constant use and comparisons made by those on social media, and meanwhile cyberbullying has been directly connected to one’s mental well-being. Overall, balance is the key to curbing any negative long-term consequences of social media.

The inception of social medial began in May of 1996 when the first official social media site, Six Degrees was launched. This website combined popular features such as profiles, friends lists and school affiliations all in one service. While the site had millions of registered users, due to lack of people connected to the internet, networks were limited. In 2002, a site called Friendster became the next big mainstream social media site. There were features on the site that made meeting people less intimidating and highly addictive. However, unable to meet the high demands of users, people began migrating on to its rival MySpace which launched in 2003. The social networking site, MySpace was known for band pages, customizable profiles and online stalking. It was the number one website in 2006. By April of 2008, Facebook took the title of number one social network on the World Wide Web. Even though MySpace attempted to re-design many times to get back on top, they failed to do so and Facebook remained the successor. Facebook launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard sophomore, and was exclusively accessible for Harvard students only. In 2006, it was available to the public and is now still the top social networking site second to Google in the national web rank (cbsnews.com). In a short amount of time, the social media market became saturated with various ways to share one’s personal life with others such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat exploded within the past five-seven years and have become some of the biggest and mostly used social media sites of this generation for teens and adults. Social media is always changing and evolving as technology advances. Currently, these social media websites and apps yield quarterly revenues for Twitter of more than $616 million in 2016 and allows Facebook a market value worth of $5 billion with over 1 billion registered accounts. (“U.A. Population with a Social Media Profile 2017”). The business of social media has become a major source for investment and revenue.

Social media can have its benefits, certainly. It allows people from all over the world the opportunity to be connected and interact. These forums give people a chance to have a platform on which they can express themselves and share their lives with friends and family. It also has the effect of making our lives a little bit more interesting. For example, waiting in a long line at the grocery store or waiting at the doctor’s office, checking social media becomes an entertaining pastime. In addition, it gives the current generation an advantage that the older generations before didn’t have which is the ability to meet people in a variety of ways, share similar interests, and possibly create new job opportunities. It gives this generation the skills needed to communicate in modern society. (Horst). In high schools today, most students have some sort of smartphone. Students are so glued to their phones that they have trouble focusing in class. However, teachers have been noticing an increase in interest in political issues ever since President Donald Trump moved into the White House, and it’s an interest that they haven’t seen in years. Since Trump is very active on Twitter with is 33 million followers and counting, it has become a main source of how young people keep up to date with his decisions (Harris). This example demonstrates how current events are much more easily accessible than in the past allowing all age levels to be keep up with current events. Rather than sitting down and reading the newspaper or watching the news on TV, teens can just go on social media like Twitter and Snapchat on their phones and have immediate access to it. Studies have shown that younger generations have become more aware of social and political issues through social media. As a result of this new knowledge, it’s a possibility that children will be able to partake in more in-depth conversations with their parents about such topics. They will also be able to talk to their friends about these topics because they all see the same content on the apps that they’re on. “It’s a conversation in the lunchroom, when normally politics really isn’t the thing to talk about,” said Julie Firetag, teacher at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School in Columbia, S.C. “They don’t want to look stupid in front of their friends. So, when they see that story on their news feed, they may click on it.” (Harris). These are the signs of new and unfamiliar times. Students want to stay interested in world issues and politics because it’s what everyone else is doing. It also gives them the opportunity to have an opinion and be able to determine what side of the political spectrum they might fall under, even before coming of voting age.

Don’t be fooled, the negative impacts of our beloved social media sites highly outweigh the positives. The effects go much deeper than the surface of sharing and scrolling. It can cause addiction, sleep deprivation and hinder real life relationships with family, friends and co-workers. (Rosen) Think about it, you wake up in the morning and check your phone, you eat breakfast and check Twitter for the latest news, you drive to work or school and when you get there you check Instagram to see what’s new with your friends, (or you even check it while you’re driving). You snapchat your friend’s multiple times a day so you can keep your streaks. You go on Facebook to keep up to date with your family and relatives. It’s just a part of your daily routine, and you’re not alone. Any form of addiction begins with compulsion. Not only does an addict of any sort, social media included, deal with abnormal use, but it also deals with withdrawal, tolerance and time management problems to name a few. Researchers have often compared concerns of social media addiction to drug and alcohol addictions which can lead to things like damaged relationships and financial issues. (Rosen).  This has a strong effect on both teens and adults. In schools, all over the country students focus more on what is happening on their phones than on the lesson being presented in class. At work, adults are also being counterproductive and weakening their professional and communicational skills. Not only has daily life been extremely affected, but when you hit the pillow, more problems can arise due to this addiction. Before falling asleep many people check their social media one last time, and usually people get caught up in watching YouTube videos or scrolling through Twitter to only realize that many hours have passed. The becomes a habit and results in getting less than the average sleep needed each night which is about 7-8 hours. It also causes us to not communicate face to face anymore and instead, text or call to talk to someone. (Rosen)This leads to bad conversational skills and people feeling that they are staying connected when in reality they are alone. Families don’t tell each other about their days at the dinner table anymore and instead sit on their phone and eat in silence. This is the sad truth about today’s society and how social media has altered the daily lives of humans all over the world.

While this new technology can have detrimental effects on teens and adults, it also has long lasting effects on young children as well. (O’Keeffe). Children used to play outside all day, jumping rope or playing hopscotch with the other neighborhood kids. It allowed them to come up with their own games and gave them the opportunity to expand their mind and have their own imagination. (Rowan). Now, many kids want to stay inside and watch YouTube videos. The question is, what is causing this shift in our society? Children’s addiction to technology and social media starts at home, and because of this readily available social media, raising children has changed. They only know what they are taught by their parents, teachers, and elders. Parents are relying more and more on communication, information and transportation technology to make their lives and their families lives more efficient and easy.  Ever since the rapid advancement of entertainment technology families haven’t notice the effects it’s had on the dynamic of the family. A 2010 study showed that “elementary aged children use on average 7.5 hours per day of entertainment technology, 75 percent of these children have TVs in their bedrooms, and 50 percent of North American homes have the TV on all day.” (Rowan). Parents are relying on these devices to essentially babysit their children while they get work done. It’s the easy and lazy way out of having to entertain children for hours at a time. This forces children to rely on technology for entertainment because they are surrounded by it. It limits their creativity and imagination which is needed to achieve optimal sensory and motor development. (Rowan) Other factors that are necessities to healthy child development are human (face to face, touch) connection and exposure to nature. These factors are not being optimized as much as they used to be with children because of various forms of social media. It is hindering their natural way of growing and learning. Meanwhile, as children spend more time on social media, they are more easily able to see advertisements for mature content that they shouldn’t be seeing. The ads that are out there can affect the way adolescents think about themselves and others, and they can alter their views on what is morally right and socially acceptable. It is important that parents know that certain behavioral ads can also invoke violent behavior, and they need to be aware of what websites their children are spending time on.  One of the most difficult things for parents to make sure of is that the sites and platforms that their children are spending time on are helpful to their growth and development. (O’Keeffe) Most importantly, it’s crucial that families sit down and evaluate their social media and technology use to come up with a plan to control it before it gets out of control.

     Furthermore, cyberbullying, online harassment, and sexting can all lead to serious cases of anxiety and depression. These affects all have one major negative aspect in common. They start with social media. Forty-two percent of teens reported being cyberbullied over the past year. Three million kids per month are absent from school because of cyberbullying. Twenty percent of kids that are cyberbullied think about committing suicide, and one in ten attempt it. (Cyberbullyhotline.com). Cyberbullying has become the most popular form of bullying in the U.S.  Children are using social media to post false, embarrassing or harassing content at the expense of others and it’s the most common online risk for teens today. It is proven to cause detrimental psychological issues like depression, anxiety, isolation and unfortunately, suicide. Another risk of teens having online profiles is sexting which is defined as “sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or images via cell phone, computer, or other digital devices.” (www.mass.gov). Alarmingly, teens who have engaged in sexting have been threatened or charged with felony or misdemeanor crimes. Though little can be done to prevent these things from happening all together, kids can get help by talking to parents and teachers about the problem and trying to avoid the person bullying. Social media can have very detrimental in so many ways and has proven to have a direct correlation with anxiety and depression. In the book, Alone Together, the author states, “Technology is bad because people are not as strong as its pull…anxiety is part of the new connectivity.” (Turkle, 242). She is trying to say that technology has more power than one might think and it has the ability to take over people’s lives whether they know it or not. As technology becomes more advanced people are becoming more addicted and reliant. It’s just a part of us and it’s hard to stop it.

Investigating the effects of social media on teens and adults as well has immense relevance and significance in today’s society. It can get us to a more productive and focused society if the problems are addressed, and there are many things society can do to make this happen.  As with most technology, it has been established that social media sites have both potential benefits as well as prevalent risks. But, because these platforms can be linked to cyberbullying, depression and anxiety, aggression, and host of other social issues, parents and kids alike should know ways to use this specific technology responsibly and in a healthy manner.  Changes can be made in the way people utilized these resources daily, especially for teens. For example, federal sites like Onguardonline.gov can help teens protect their information while other resources sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security’s such as “Stop. Think. Connect.” can help teens and parents learn to be responsible digital citizens. (“February 2016: Teens’ Social Media Use.”)  It is important for the conversations about how to be healthy digital citizens take place both at home and at school. It’s not impossible to do this because we are equipped with resources and education about healthy use. Adults also battle the role of social media in the workplace and in the professional world. “We’ve been told that it’s important to tend to your so-called social media brand, as this provides access to opportunities you might otherwise miss and supports the diverse contact network you need to get ahead.” (Newport) The branding and connections made professionally can be invaluable for advancement. However, there is also current research that presents the idea that opportunities and connections can be made without social media if the work is invaluable and honest, and that “If you do that, the rest will work itself out, regardless of the size of your Instagram following.” (Newport) Furthermore, as with teens, an adult’s inability to concentrate without distraction weakens professional skills. Changes can definitely be made in the realm of responsible use personally and professionally. It is up to all of us to have the conversations and to know the resources available to use this influential piece of our lives in a healthy manner.