By Jacqueline Hodge
Published: April 27, 2015
SOCIAL media is definitely an important thing in the lives of most teenagers, but just because it is important, it doesn’t mean that they are necessarily a good thing to have. Social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Ask.FM, Tumblr, Instagram and Snapchat can bring both good and bad things. I am not a big fan of social media myself, because I find that it is a place where people can easily get bullied and where they can easily do very inappropriate things.
I’ve seen many horrible things on many different social media and that is a reason why they can be a problem. A few things that I’ve seen on are: cyberbullying, inappropriate posts such as bad language, talking about sex and drugs, people getting judged by their looks. I don’t think people my age should have to go through this. They shouldn’t have to feel judged at all times, they shouldn’t feel like they are worthless or ugly and they shouldn’t feel like they have to change just to be liked. These things can cause a lot of pain and anxiety, many people can’t see this. On social media where you can talk to others anonymously, it’s easier to cyberbully people just because you think they don’t know who you are. I’ve seen these things where people post “Rates” (where people will rate you with a letter, number or thing based on looks, personality, or just based on what they think of you) or “TBHs” (where people type their opinion on you), which can easily cause someone to feel bad about themselves.
Many people have become depressed, have become extremely self-conscious or have even committed suicide due to the pain caused by bullying on social media. I think that a lot of these things could be avoided if the parents of those posting the awful content or those receiving it should take control of the situation and do something about it before something even worse happens to them. I see things that people shouldn’t be posting at their age and it makes me wonder what compels them to do so. That’s enough about the negatives of social media. There are also some positive things about them. You can communicate easily with friends, family and even some acquaintances who you may know from school who you’d like to know better. You can Skype or FaceTime people who live a long distance from you, or even people who live close to you if you can’t visit them at the time. You can make plans with your friends without having to talk to them in person, which makes things much easier. Another thing you can do is find people who may have similar problems to yours and talk to them about it. You can help people and people can help you online or find others with similar interests. You can talk to them about it there instead of trying to talk about it to your friends who may not share the same interest (it has happened to me before).
If you are a shy person like me, social media can definitely be useful to you when you want to be social! Overall, I think that social media can be a very useful thing as well as things used to bully or to post things that young people shouldn’t be posting. Even though I’m not too fond of them, I know that others are, which is totally fine! Just as long as you aren’t hurting or being hurt by people. Even though I do get annoyed at how my mom goes through my social media profiles, I know that it’s for a good reason and I think more parents should do the same.