Negative Impacts Of Social Media

Samatha was in 5th grade when she was first bullied by her male classmate. The bully usually consisted of verbal harassment such as, “Why are you on this earth,” and “You don’t deserve to be alive.” It got to the point where she didn’t want to come to school because she was afraid, but when she did, the bullying became physical. Samantha missed 30 days of school that year due to bullying. 

Statistics show that 15 percent of teens say they were targets of online cruelty, 41 percent of teens had a negative experience as a result of using social media, and 22 percent of teens lost their friendship with someone due to cyberbullying on social media. 

“I believe that social media does have a negative impact. I have had a negative impact when it comes to social media, because I believe everything on the internet, and it’s dangerous,” sophomore Mayrin Torres said. 

Mentally, social media has an effect in many different ways, such as leading to stress, pressure of comparing yourself to others, and increased sadness and isolation.

“Growing up on social media has affected me in a way where I cannot live without my phone. If I had never got my first electronic device I would be more responsible with my education and future,” senior Anh Dang said. 

Many stud­ies show that high­er lev­els of social media use among chil­dren and ado­les­cents are linked to adverse effects that include depres­sion and anx­i­ety, inad­e­quate sleep (which can dis­rupt neu­ro­log­i­cal devel­op­ment and lead to depres­sion and sui­ci­dal behav­iors).

“Social media takes up so much time as a young kid, and it gets in the way of everything when you could be hanging out with friends, family, or working. I believe you should at least be 10 years old to have social media because you’re starting to understand how people act, but certain apps should be restricted,” senior Jace Yurk said. 

The negative impact of social media does not only affect yourself, but the people around you. 

“I feel like having social media at such a young age has disconnected me from what is important. I am constantly on my phone and don’t pay attention to what is going on around me, which has affected me in more ways than one,” said Torres. 

Since social media is a relatively new technology, there’s little to know about it. Social media does not only affect the way you see yourself but can also affect your brain and memory deficits. 

“I have had social media since I was in elementary school, and I can’t tell the difference between when something is right or wrong when it comes to the information that is put out on social media. The information that is given out, I believe, because I just assume that it is right without doing research, and I think that has affected me more than I thought,” said Dang. 

Having social media does not always mean a bad thing; however, when people overuse the content, they start to lose touch with reality.

“I don’t think social media is all bad, I just believe that we could do more than just sit on our phone staring at a screen all the time,” said Yurk