It has become increasingly difficult to hold a conversation with any teenager in recent years. This is partly because teenagers spend most of their time staring at and scrolling through their phones. This behavior can be attributed to increased adoption and use of social media. Currently, social media plays a vital role in the lives of teenagers globally. Up to 90% of teenagers aged between 13 and 17 are frequent social media users ( American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry , 2018) . About 75% of teenagers have at least one active social media profile, while 51% visit at least one social media site every day. Moreover, two-thirds of teenagers own mobile devices that also have internet capabilities. Approximately 51% of the teenagers aged between 13 and 17 in the United States use Facebook less compared to those that use such platforms as Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). Teenagers are online for up to 9 hours a day on average. Besides exposing them to various ills, increased social media use reduces the amount of time teenagers spend on other productive tasks. Parents should regulate social media use by their teenage children to prevent the negative repercussions of overuse.
Teenagers use social media as a way of staying in touch with their peers. Social media platforms have become an essential aspect of connecting and socializing in the modern world. Teenagers use social media as means of talking to peers and friends, engaging in group discussions, keeping up with current events and other online content, meeting new individuals, and as a way of avoiding boredom ( Heffer et al., 2019). While these reasons are justifiable to teenagers, parents should be aware that adolescence is a crucial period of rapid development. Parents have to pay increased attention to how their teenage children use social media to prevent the negative consequences of this use.
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The increased use of social media by teenagers has been associated with numerous negative repercussions. Notable among these include negative body image and self-image, addiction to social media, cyberbullying, and reduced amount of time spent pursuing other healthy activities. Scholars have also found a link between the use of social media and increased anxiety as well as lowered self-esteem amongst teenagers ( Twenge & Campbell , 2018). Teenagers who spend too much time on social media are likely to be disconnected from the real world ( Twenge & Campbell , 2018). They are also likely to be victims of online bullying or damaged online reputations. Those spending considerable time on social media often share large amounts of personal information and are more prone to being harassed by strangers or being victims of online scams. Some teenagers may end up having low self-esteem due to increased comparison with their peers ( Twenge & Campbell , 2018). Parents need to educate their children about these aspects of social media use. In particular, parents can help teenagers in developing such positive habits as taking breaks from social media use or turning off notifications to reduce distractions. Ultimately, parents have to play a role in ensuring that the use of social media does not affect other important areas of their children's' lives.
Teenagers who spend too much time on social media may be exposed to inappropriate and harmful content. This includes violence, sex, and drugs, among others. Besides being exposed to dangerous people, these teens are also exposed to excessive advertisements. Also, the teens might be exposed to privacy concerns such as the collection of private data. In some cases, the teens' social media accounts may be hacked, and their identity is stolen. Excessive use of social media interferes with the teenagers' ability to exercise, sleep, and study. Parents need to educate and support their teenage children in developing skills that would help them manage how they use social media ( Twenge & Campbell , 2018 ). This would entail helping them to embrace the responsible use of social media. In particular, parents need to set family rules then talk to their children about how to use social media in the context of these rules. Parents should monitor their children's online activities and come up with consequences for inappropriate and excessive social media use.
The use of social media among teenagers has been associated with depression and anxiety. There is a consensus among scholars that the constant use of social media causes overstimulation amongst teenagers. This, in turn, changes their nervous system into a fight-or-flight mode. This shift worsens such disorders as teen anxiety, teen depression, oppositional defiant disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD ) . Various studies indicate that increased frequency of social media use by teenagers is closely correlated to mental health issues. For instance, Twenge & Campbell (2018) found that 14 to 17-year-old teenagers who used social media for seven hours every day were twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression compared to those who used social media for only one hour a day. They also had increased chances of being treated by a mental health specialist or taking medication related to a behavioral or psychological issue within the last year. Such occurrences justify the need for parents to set rules for social media use by their teenage children.
A previous study targeting adolescents in the U.S. established that suicide rates and depressive symptoms among teens rose between 2010 and 2015. This was especially the case for female teenagers compared to their male counterparts. The researchers attributed these findings to increased social media use and the overall amount of time spent on screens between those years ( Twenge et al., 2018). This study was also in agreement with previous findings by other scholars that the adolescents who spent a considerable amount of time on social media had increased chances of developing mental health issues. Conversely, the teens that spend more time on such activities like exercising, sporting, interacting with peers, and doing homework, among other activities, had less likelihood of reporting such issues. These revelations further confirm the need for parents to regulate the use of social media by their teenage children.
In their study of social media use among 13-year-old teenagers, Underwood & Faris (2015) established that the participants who checked their Facebook or any other social networking site between fifty and hundred times in a single day ended up being 37% more distressed in comparison to those that checked these sites a few times a day. The teenagers who checked their social media more than a hundred times in a single day were 47% more likely to be distressed on average. This calls for increased regulation of teenage use of social media.
Some scholars have claimed that the reduction of social media use amongst teenagers is not the solution. For instance, Orben & Przybylski (2019) established that while digital technology use is likely to reduce the well-being of teenagers, the well-being only goes down by about 0.4% at most. In some instances, it has been shown that when teens are depressed, they are likely to find solace in social media. Heffer et al. (2019) found that the use of social media was not predictive of depressive symptoms among their respondents. Instead, the presence of symptoms of depression predicted increased use of social media over time. However, this applied to adolescent girls only. Despite these findings, it is undeniable that increased social media use by teenagers is associated with numerous negative repercussions.
Teenagers should not be allowed to use social media uncontrollably just because they have easy access to it. Parents need to pay attention to the amount of time their teenage children spend on social media. Besides ensuring that the teenagers do not compromise their mental health owing to the social comparison that comes with increased social media use, regulating social media use ensures that teenagers have time to engage in other healthy and useful activities. Further, regulated social media use ensures that the teenagers' body image and self-esteem remain intact. Parents in the United States should recognize the negative implications of social media on their teenage children and thus regulate their use.
References
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (2018, March). Social Media and Teens. https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Social-Media-and-Teens-100.aspx#:~:text=Surveys%20show%20that%20ninety%20percent,mobile%20devices%20with%20internet%20capabilities .
Anderson, M., & Jiang, J. (2018, May 31). Teens, Social Media & Technology 2018. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/
Heffer, T., Good, M., Daly, O., MacDonell, E., & Willoughby, T. (2019). The longitudinal association between social-media use and depressive symptoms among adolescents and young adults: An empirical reply to Twenge et al. (2018). Clinical Psychological Science , 7 (3), 462-470.
Orben, A., & Przybylski, A. K. (2019). The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use. Nature Human Behaviour , 3 (2), 173-182.
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2018). Associations between screen time and lower psychological well-being among children and adolescents: Evidence from a population-based study. Preventive medicine reports , 12 , 271–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2018.10.003
Twenge, J. M., Joiner, T. E., Rogers, M. L., & Martin, G. N. (2018). Increases in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates among U.S. adolescents after 2010 and links to increased new media screen time. Clinical Psychological Science , 6 (1), 3-17.
Underwood, M. K., & Faris, R. (2015). Being thirteen: Social media and the hidden world of young adolescents’ peer culture. Cable News Network .
Think about Your Writing
Question 1
I have learned that to present a strong argument, I have to choose a side first. Secondly, for me to adequately defend my position, I have to support my argument with facts. Therefore, I will endeavor to stand by facts in both my professional and everyday life.
Question 2
From the English Composition I course as a whole, I have learned that I am an average writer. I have also learned that reading and writing cannot be decoupled in both academic and professional contexts. Thus, for me to become good at writing, I have to be good at reading. Further, I am now aware that to be a good writer, I have to spend a considerable amount of time analyzing, summarizing, and evaluating various written works. This way, I will strengthen my grammar and my overall writing process. The course also exposed me to the art of choosing a side and arguing either persuasively or argumentatively.
