Written by: Aayusi Shrestha - 26002, Grade X
Posted on: 04 November, 2022
This generation uses social media far too much. All the time, we are glued to our screens. While I acknowledge that social media has certain advantages, the drawbacks far outweigh the benefits. Social media is impacting our lives more negatively than positively. Although it is widely believed that young people are the only ones who use social media, in reality, everyone has access to it. A lot of people are “addicted” to social media, either it is just one or many. Toxicity has become common in social media. I have a social media addiction as well. Well, I hate to admit it, but the first thing I do when I get up is browse Pinterest or Tiktok. Most people do this.
On social media, we watch content creators doing bizarre things and taking dangerous risks. It is quite sad that people have begun valuing views and likes over themselves. Seeing others do those kinds of risky things and getting so much attention tempts more people to do so. Some people go way too far to get views and likes. For example wasting food, acting dumb, doing risky things, eating too much and more. This is simply ruining our lives and wasting our time. Instead of doing things that will help us in our life we are looking at the screen and not being productive.
Personally, I have observed that at family gatherings, people continuously use their phones or take pictures rather than conversing or spending time together. Social media is making people distant. Everyone is there on social media but not everyone is there physically or emotionally. Overusing social media results in social isolation and a lack of interaction with others. It's obvious that my ability to socialize has decreased as a result of my excessive usage of social media. Let me remind you that social media promotes cyberbullying, body shaming, unrealistic beauty standards, etc. The biggest reasons for teens being insecure is also due to social media, as we may know social media promotes body shaming and bullying which leads to poor mental health. To be honest not everything shown in social media is real. Social media distorts reality and plays psychological games with us to make us believe what they want us to believe for their own gain and selfish reasons.
Teenagers and children are living the social media life more than real life which causes depression, insecurities, self harm, suicidal thoughts. Social media has been affecting teenagers in a negative way. Using too much social media means grades dropping. Once our addiction to social media starts we will find ourselves spending more time on social media and not studying which will obviously lead to bad academic performance. Also other few negative impacts of social media are sleep deprivation, anxiety, body dysmorphia and low self esteem. After spending time on social media, the majority of teenage females start comparing themselves to celebrities in an effort to be slender, attractive, and wealthy like them.
The question still remains: how do we stop letting social media ruin our lives? The answer is that we can not stop social media from being toxic. Even if we spread awareness about it, the toxicity is still going to remain. In the end I can only say that social networking is here to stay whether we like it or not, whether it is good or bad. The only way we can benefit from it in a positive manner is to draw a line between good and bad and not let it influence our social and psychological well being.
