Technology has had a huge impact on teenagers. Throughout this millennium electronics have been on a fast rise and we can expect to see innovative technological breakthroughs every year. Cell phones, laptops, and tablets are all in the hands of teenagers which give them access to the internet and social media, which is one of the most popular technological inventions in the recent years. Technology gives people of all ages access to communicate 24/7. This is something that has changed the we interact and work with each other. Technology allows us to communicate with anyone in the world at any time and that is why it is so popular. Over 2.5 billion people, expected to go up to 3 billion in the next 4 years (Statista), already use some sort of social media and it has brought a lot of controversy on whether social media is a good thing. Out of all the effects that social media has on teenagers, research has shown that there are more negative than positive effects.

Social media has influenced everyone that lives in a first world country, either directly or through a secondary source. There are both positive and negative effects of social media on the youth. One of the many issues revolving around social media is how it effects the youth. Most of the sources covered emphasize on the negative effects of it. This is mainly because of the overuse of social media by teens leading for articles to make claims against social media. Most of the articles given have some bias towards the negative side effects. By analyzing all the articles, it may seem obvious that social media is a negative thing because the majority of the research seems to claim that. There cannot be a universal truth to if social media is good or bad. The use of social media revolves more around teens rather than adults, then social media addiction is something to take into consideration. Nowadays teens are often addicted to social media and that is what hinders the usefulness of social media. It is hard to determine the overall truth if social media is completely good or bad but as technology advances we seem to find more and more negative sides to it.

Social media has a huge impact on teenagers, however, we would not have social media without the devices to use it. As mentioned earlier cell phones, tablets, and laptops are all means that social media can be accessed. To access social media, people mostly use their cell phones. This allows people to stay up to date with what is happening on their social media every minute of the day. To take into comparison, laptops are useful to access social media but students do not carry it around wherever they go. Laptops take a lot longer to open and to start compared to a cell phone. The article Impact of Smartphone’s on Society presents us with a graph that smartphones became more popular in 2011 and have been far outpacing other gadgets ever since. This indicates how prevalent the usage of smartphones and social media has become. The author describes smartphones and its impacts as follows “The key impacts like enable to be always-connected, addiction to phone, single device with all required features, business edge, convenient educational features, apps as new technology, entertainment, best utilization of time, disrespectful behavior, privacy issues, impact on culture, distraction at work and at education institutions and many more provide us both positive and negative sides of the Smartphones.” (Sarwar) There are obviously two sides to the argument and there are a lot of impacts that are negative and that might lead to believe that smartphones are relatively bad, but from the following quote from the same article, the author argues that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. The author states “It is apparent from above facts that the benefits of smartphones are tremendous and negative impacts are minor. So it is important to concentrate on how to stop and avoid smartly the misuse of Smartphone rather trying to stop or avoid use to smartphones.” (Sarwar) But still, the misuse of smartphones and smartphone addiction is something that affects most teens. According to a study presented in the previously mentioned article, 60% of teens admit they are highly addicted to their Smartphone. There are many reasons as to why smartphones are addicting but one of the main reasons to such a high rate of smartphone addiction is caused by social media. 

The current technology such as smartphones and tablets all have the capability to browse the web and that automatically gives access to social media. In today’s world, we know social media as websites and applications such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat, but the Merriam-Webster dictionary provides us with a current definition of social media. The dictionary defines social media as “Forms of electronic communication (as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).” Throughout the existence of social media, it has shaped into a few different branches. For example, Twitter focuses on short, 140 word posts that people write. Instagram focuses on pictures that you can view on your profile for the rest of your life and snapchat, which primarily is used to send people pictures which can only be viewed once and are then deleted or get erased after 24 hours. This means that each outlet of social media might affect people differently but there are some effects that stay the same throughout the social media platforms. 

 Social media has improved our lives in many ways that nowadays a lot of people cannot even imagine life without it. It has granted us so many opportunities to do things that people found utopic or crazy 20 years ago. Social media helps us to stay connected at any time and at any place. This grants us so many opportunities and simplifies our life in ways we cannot imagine

Networking on social media is truly a unique thing to experience. Once you are fully involved in social media the possibilities are endless. You can contact celebrities directly through Twitter and most of the time the celebrities even reply. Also, it is possible to share photos, letters, files, or whatever is on a persons electronic device to everyone they desire to send it to through social media. This unlocks limitless opportunities on the internet while bringing so many simple, yet efficient, benefits to the table. You can be connected to people and groups who share the same interest and hobbies. This makes people more secure about themselves to show that they are not weird or alone because of their different hobbies or interests from that of their peers in their living places. Sharing words with people that are interested about the same things will also grant the opportunity to grow and advance in the fields that one is interested in and getting neat tips and tricks. This is extremely useful for introverted people, or people that do not do that well in a face-to-face communication. All of this gives the users of social media a means of communication. It grants people the possibility of making friends and acquaintances that allow you to get better in the fields that interest a person which also allows to grow as a person, to find comfort, and to share your positive moments. 

Many times when asked “What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of social media” usually people agree on it being about sharing pictures or videos with friends and strangers through the world wide web such as Facebook and Instagram. However, what many people do not think of is that social media is a useful tool for students to study and exceed in school. Online tools are used to help share school work with classmates, connect study groups, and make study guides. An example would be Quizlet, a website designed to help students study for exams. It allows pupils to create flash cards, study guides, and other useful ways to helps them learn information. The student creates an account permitting them to save all previous work and connect and share with other classmates. If the student puts his information on public, any person around the world can use and learn from his work. According to Joseph Baker, writer of How Students Benefit from Using Social Media, pupils use social media every day as a source “To interact with their peers and even teachers about class-related subjects.” He also explains how since technology has become such a big part of student’s lives that they “Are becoming experts at developing a sense of Internet presence (Baker). Social media makes it easier for students to organize and find more resources that they could use for studying. It makes it more efficient and easier to connect and share additional information with classmates and even other students at other schools. 

One of the least thought about ways that social media can help a person is through social media marketing. Most of the people that use social media find the ads and the marketing part of it annoying, but it serves a purpose that might be very useful to teens after growing up. Marketing is something that everyone could make use of at some point in their lives. Persuasion is a tool used in marketing that comes in handy in daily situations of trying to convince people for their own benefits. The power of persuasion is a strong skill that is required in marketing and at times in everyday life. This is where social media marketing comes into play. Through paying attention to the ads and what attract viewers, adolescents have the opportunity to learn something that has only recently been viewed as a career option, and that is having a career as a social media marketer (Sardesai). This is a field that is growing fast and has a huge potential. The best people for this role are the ones that use social media constantly and who know what appeals to the people on social media, giving teens an edge over all others to pursue a career in that field.

There are many positive sides to social media that a lot of people deem enough for the price we pay for using social media.  Although social media has simplified our lives, there are still numerous negative effects of social media as well. It can be argued that the negative sides outweigh the positives to make social media harmful that should be with limited access to people.

One of the biggest reasons that social media is deemed unhealthy or bad, as mentioned before about smartphones, is because of how addicting it is. In the article Butterfly Brain: Why Smartphones are Making Us Stupid, the author provides an example of how her day as a writer is. When she states “As a writer working from home, my days often go a little something like this… check emails, a bit of writing, check Facebook. A bit more writing, more emails, check the news online, a bit of writing, a bit of Twitter, a bit more writing…” She gives this example to make a point of how addicting social media is. In this case, she admits to the problem but there are numerous teenagers who use social media very often without realizing that they are addicted. An article from CNN called Do You Obsessively Check Your Smartphone? referred to a study which said that, “On average, the study subjects checked their phones 34 times a day, not necessarily because they really needed to check them that many times, but because it had become a habit or compulsion” (Cohen). This indicates of how much of an addiction smartphones and social media has become. It is hard for people not to check their phones even if they do not have any notifications or a specific reason to check it. This is a bad habit that is considered an addiction. In the same article a neuroscientist was interviewed and he said "We don't even consciously realize we're doing it -- it's an unconscious behavior" (Cohen). It is an unconscious behavior which can lead to other unhealthy outcomes.

Addiction also leads to numerous other negative effects like health problems, insomnia, and plenty others. One of the first things that parents tell their children when they are being on their phones too much is to get off the phone because it damages eyesight. Although not completely proven correct, there are studies that suggest that there is a link between the two. An optician states on an interview conducted by BBC “It's the combination of not blinking enough and bringing the device closer than you normally look at objects - it strains your eyes. (Hepworth)” Another important health factor caused by smartphones and social media is insomnia. “The blue light these devices emit can suppress production of the sleep regulating hormone melatonin, promoting insomnia” (Weil). There are many more minor health problems that the overuse of social media causes but those are the major ones that cause serious health issues. 

There are also harmful things in social media itself that might affect the mental health of children. The most relevant of the bunch is cyberbullying. It is mentioned in every introductory video presented to children about the internet and has become even more of a topic of problem than bullying itself. The reason for the popularity of cyberbullying is given in an article by the Huffington Post. It states that cyberbullying appears easy to the bully because they do not see their victims’ reactions in person, and thus the impact of the consequences is small (Ramasubbu). Although the consequences may seem small, it could leave a devastating effect on the person being bulied. A person may become distressed or may even harm themselves. It is mentioned to be the most common online risk for all teens by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Stalking may also be considered a form of cyberbullying which might also lead to unwanted face-to-face interactions. Everything that teens share on social media does not require much effort to find out where he or she is located and what they are doing. This might lead the children to dangerous situations.

The usage of social media is a very prevalent topic that has sparked a lot of controversy between people. Some have formed the opinion that it is a bad thing and it should be taken away, whereas other people seem to think that social media is generally positive and should be available for nearly everyone. There are more mentioned negative impacts of social media than positive. In the end, it is more about how each person uses social media and what are the reasons of use. If the usage of it is controlled and not abused, then social media can be a highly positive thing however research has shown that more times than not it is misused. If misused, then the negative effects can strongly outweigh the positive ones and it would be hard to argue for the positivity of social media. 
