Social media or the destruction of youth

PSocial Media or the destructor of youth

Farah Najar

Writing and Composition class

Mediterranean School of Business

Social Media or the destructor of youth

Multiple fluctuations in technologies have made appearance during contemporary era, and Social Media is not an exception. It has, in fact, unconsciously impacted people’s lives. Being part of generation Z and holding its perspective, people are acutely aware of the impossibility of living without social media. It has switched from online entertainments to a basic need. It is crucial to point out this subject since human beings do not control their frequent use of social networks anymore. On the contrary, it has been perceived as a controlling factor or tool. Nevertheless, no one can deny the importance and advantages of Social Media, but it is fundamental to look after its danger, especially on youth.

At the outset, Social Media world is first seen full of positivity and pink stars, but much more complications are hidden. Being a teenager in these days is not always a bed of roses. The rate of complex inferiority within youth, is increasing day by day and Social Media is, in fact, one of the main causes. In fact, seeing influencers or friends posts on Instagram with luxurious features and expensive trips, became a daily routine for everyone. The problem here, is not only that people are linking perfect life with such materialistic features, but also that kids are feeling demoralized. To explain more, “They get embarrassed by seeing their friends spending extra money on parties and purchasing new multiple features, expensive mobile phones and showing them on Instagram or Facebook” (Bhojane, 2019). What they ignore is that the perfect life seen on social media is most of the time, fake. As a matter of fact, most of the pictures posted by influencers on Instagram are whether photoshopped or sponsored by brands which, means that every post is calculated and well prepared. This is the kind of behaviors that is impacting negatively on youth’s mental health, because they will try to imitate them and most of the time they cannot. This vicious cycle of desiring what others have is what makes the rate of inferiority complex increasing for teens and anxiety problems. In fact “according to a survey done in 2018 among Generation Z, out of 1,000 individuals, more than third admitted to developing anxiety, depression, and sadness and state that they would quit social media” (n.a, n.d).

For these reasons, many campaigns are made to aware youth from the danger of fake news and fake pictures on Social Media. The creation of an online platform called “lifefaker.com” is a good example. They provide packaging of photos that people will use as their own. Under the slogan of “Life isn’t perfect, your profile should be” (Gil, 2018) ,they seem to incite people into showing a life that isn’t theirs but, on the contrary they aims to “raise awareness of the negative impact social media can have on [people’s] mental health” (Gil, 2018). Whenever someone will try to buy a picture it will give them a solidarity message. To sum up, generation Z is suffering from serious mentals diseases that the main cause is the unconscious use of Social Media, and it must stop.

        In addition, bullying has always existed, especially in high school. With the growth of Internet and Social Media, this behavior increased even more and changed to Cyberbullying. As a matter of fact, “One in three young people in 30 countries said they have been a victim of online bullying, with one in five reporting having skipped school due to cyberbullying and violence.” (n.a, 2019). This UNICEF study has awakened the world on the number of children being victims of online harassment. The intimidation of these victims is done daily which means whenever they check their devices. Nowadays, bullies who, target vulnerable children, can follow them everywhere and in other words there is no more an escape. The Irish politician Ruairi Quinn confirmed this, saying “Things were bad enough when bullying was confined to the playground, but now it can follow you home in your pocket” (Dignam, n.d). Children who are exposing their lives on Social Media are most of time the ones whose being attacked. For example, they will photoshop their pictures, send them hurtful messages and create fake rumors. This whole situation of cyberbullying has several impacts on victims’ mental health. Actually, most of them has experienced sorts of depressions and even suicidal thoughts. The university of Sheffield has found that “12.2% of victims of cyberbullying had viewed websites associated with suicide […] [and that] 17.7% of victims had viewed websites associated with self-harm” (Blow & Hussey, 2018). The gravity of this situation grabbed the attention of everyone. First, many campaigns were addressed by civil society activists, in the purpose of raising awareness of the violence happening on internet and to “provide clear guidance to help drive transformative change” (n.a, 2017). Then, government strated criminalizing cyberbullying , by passing strict laws and regulations. For example, a cyberbully in United Kingdom will be faced to around “six months or more [of imprisonment] and a fine under the Malicious communications Act” (Cepin, et al., 2016). To conclude, Social Media is used by most of youths which is why it is crucial to impose a constant supervision, gaidance and even age limit.

        Furthermore, apart from the psychological disturbances Social Media has on youth and the violence it hides, it has also created serious brain damage. As previously said, the world has seen an impressive growth in the digital platforms. The British psychologist Edward de Bono said :

“There is  a danger in the internet and social media. The notion that information is enough, that more and more information is enough, that you don’t have to think, you just have to get more information-gets very dangerous”. (Bono, n.d)

With a diverse choice of apps and websites, nowdays all information are available after a simple click. For a long time, people were thrilled of this specific technological advance, but today research has found that these facilities are impacting humans brains. Actually knowing that the attention span of a goldfish is 9 second, a “national centre for Biotechnology information claimed that the average human attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013” (Valentine, n.d). This research under the name of the “Goldfish effect” has opened several question, on how does a frequent use of Social Media can have this kind of effect. "The issue is that information isn't knowledge” (Rivett, 2014) said the Neuroscientist Susan Greenfield of Oxford University. What people ignores , is that having this amount of available information without doing any effort, has weaken human brains, or in other words it became lazy. As a matter of fact, a research showed that the increase of an adolescent use of social media, automatically leads to an increase of attention deficit a year later and of ADHD symptoms (Attention Deficit hyperactivity Disorder) (n.d, 2019). Actually these conclusions are not choking. Society should not expect children who spends hours watching sixty seconds videos on tiktok, concentrate on a one hour class These attention deficit are detectable whenever a daily connected child was given a book to read or even paying attention in class. This disorder has impacted their lives in many ways. First, studies showed that these child have more parents conflicts than others, since not all families give the best support and the most effective strategies. Then, it is known that people with ADHD symptoms often have social interactions problems due to their social skills and the rejections of the society. This whole problems has lead to a development of depression and anxiety disorders. For this reason , in order to avoid the abusif use of Social Media within youth , many advices were shared, especially for parents. For instance, helping them more focus on their studies by imposing time limits, rather than spending hours in front of a screen. Another good tip is “swapping a laptop for a book during relawation time” (Valentine, n.d). Sophie Valentine also proposed an effective way to help children combine education with social media, by  encouraging them to follow     educational platforms such as TEDTalks  the scientific journal Nature and NASA (Valentine, n.d).

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