The Tech age is upon us. Rapidly developing, streaming, connecting, and casting, inhabitants of Earth today have come across technology in all walks of life. For older generations, adapting to the merits of the internet, a whole new outlet that simultaneously brings the old and the new, the distant and the near, and binding world’s otherwise untouchable to many around the globe, with just a click of button has become a part of life. But for the latest generation, now starting to step foot in the workplace, the internet is their haven, coined “digital natives”, those born in the early 21st century have grown up side by side with the wonders of the internet, smart devices and digital appliances. We’ve spent our childhood online, and we now spent most of our free time their too. From the first evident social media site, Six Degrees, developed in 1997, to MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and many others, we’ve had a wide assortment of online social entertainment along the years to choose from. So how has social media shaped our lives, we now have grown accustomed to the pursuit of likes, followers, trends, platforms and more people to spend our time with than ever before. There is so much going on and we just have to be involved. Thanks to social media and the internet, post Millennials or Gen Z now live a justifiable increasingly sped up life, but living alongside social media and the internet buzz of today can be a challenge, and for especially for the youngest digital natives, how does one make sure to keep the balance between a screen and real life, because getting sucked in can be a lot more difficult than plugging out.
95% of Teens report that they have a smartphone, and 45% of teens report being online at a near constant basis. The most popular social media among teens, is YouTube. YouTube is incredibly popular and can be a tool for innovation, creativity, education, and sometimes even productivity. However, YouTube can pose many new challenges to a developing audience. First of all, like many other social media sites, it can be addictive, and viewers can be thrown in a loop of recommendations, targeted to you specifically. This created by the YouTube algorithms, can take hours away from students, who can otherwise use this time for more productive tasks such as homework, reading, playing sports or pursuing other hobbies of interest to them. This YouTube recommendation cycle is a common cause of a procrastination habit. For every video you click on and watch, your brain gets a little hit of dopamine, you feel good and motivated by this, so your brain rewards you and you are tempted to do it again and again. Like any other type of addiction, however minor, it can be hard to stop. YouTube is a very time consuming addiction, and it is common to have wasted hours and hours on it. Additionally, YouTube isn’t exactly always the most pleasant platform to be on either, since anyone can essentially become a creator, coming across disturbing content is a norm. Although YouTube has safety features, creators can find ways to navigate them and get passed videos being blocked. This is especially harmful for the youngest digital natives. Kids have grown up on the creepy side of YouTube, with videos disguised as nursery rhymes or cartoons with their favorite characters, only once clicked becoming disturbing, grotesque, with adult content and language. This isn’t entirely YouTube’s fault, as parents should be aware of this phenomenon as well, these videos have even infiltrated the YouTube Kids app, and YouTube themselves have acknowledged them, stating that there is not much that can be done but blocking them as they come up on your toddler’s screen. Kids today are growing up watching a wide assortment of videos, unsupervised, and the effect of this can be harmful, as internet role models can never be too trustworthy, it is important to understand that a creators job is to post videos for their audience, and to profit from ads, merchandising and viewers, and although some creators have taken it upon themselves to be kid friendly, not all of them have. Kids and Teens are growing up too fast with role models that more times than not, don’t teach them the values and skills they need to be respectful and responsible adults. It is important to seek out creators with kindness and productivity in their back pockets so that kids know they are getting the positive reinforcement they need, and parents are aware and approve what their kids are watching.
Bullying has always been at the forefront of adolescent issues and the growing popularity of social media sites have added a new form of abuse to the table. Seven in 10 young people have experienced cyber bullying in their lifetime, and 37% of young people say they experience cyber bullying on a frequent basis. Cyber bullying or online bullying can take place in many forms, such as negative comments on posts, direct bullying via private messages, the spread of rumors online, identity theft, and sharing embarrassing pictures of a person without their permission online. The number of cyber bullying cases reported are low, fewer than 1 in 5 cases, and even though there is an awareness of cyber bullying and its damaging effects on youth, it is still a prominent problem that our society faces. The truth is too much of a young person’s world is online and nasty comments online have become increasingly common. Alarmingly 1 in 3 young people have experienced cyber threats online, and most of the time, they don’t tell their parents or a trusted adult. Because cyber scares and abuse is becoming increasingly common, kids don’t feel the need to tell someone, and then have to take on their low self esteem, anxiety, fear, and damaging sometimes suicidal thoughts by themselves. Kids are naive and in a world shaped by acceptance and social gratification, that is what they are searching for. Nowadays kids are more likely to strike up conversations with strangers online and build relationships with people who live on the other side of the globe. Over sharing could be harmful for lonely young people who turn the internet for companionship, because at the end of the day you don’t know who’s watching you on the other end of your phone screen. Information can even be used against someone without their permission, as demonstrated in the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Privacy Scandal, earlier this year. Although it wasn’t bullying, Facebook collected data without the permission of its users which ended up influencing an election, it was unexpected but the platform lost the trust of many of their most loyal users, who woke up to the dangers of oversharing and realized just how vulnerable they are to big companies and strangers on the internet.
Social Media, as it is used today, can be like a game. Winners are those with thousands of followers, heaps of likes on their latest posts, people from all over flocking to see their latest live stream, building up a community, to fight an endless battle for prominence. Who has the most likes, who has the most followers, what’s trending, people posting selfies to get their daily supply of positive reinforcement on their looks, hair, lifestyle and relationships. It’s almost like a cutthroat competition, and when the people around you seemingly live an almost perfect life, teens start to doubt themselves. Why aren’t they living up to someone else’s expectations of perfection. Why has your social persona become a substitute for how you live your real life? Those friends you post with, are you actually that close, or is that actually a no makeup selfie, or is this all a facade. We all want to be happy, successful and look great, and since we are on the internet, we can project our ideal life instead our true real one. Our life is just for show, because we need that fan base, it gives us power and prominence. Young people today can get so caught up in the thrill of likes, comments on their appearances, and follower requests, that they begin to expect it almost constantly. It is incredibly easy to get hooked on that social stimulant, and difficult to navigate and block the urge to alway check phones after posting. So difficult that teens often forget to live life in the real world. Sometimes young people forget that it’s our real friendships and the meaningful conversations they have every day that give us a healthy evaluation of our own life. Even though we hate to admit it, our Facebook friends won’t stay with us forever,but our real friends might, if we establish deep face to face connections. This does not mean quitting social media altogether, but a much needed reevaluation of our lives, and appreciation for those around us who have helped us through tough times. Maybe they are the friends we post with, and that’s great but it we should make those distinctions. Especially for teens, it is important to make sure all of our relationships are real beyond the rush of social media.
Teens now are physically safer than before, with less out partying, drinking and engaging in risky behavior. However, research backs up that teens today are on the brink of a mental health crises, and excessive time spent on our phones is an underlying factor in this. Levels of social interaction between kids are at an all time low as children prefer screen time to playtime, and teens spend a large chunk of their free time staring a their phone, scrolling through social media. This can lead to heightened levels of depression and anxiety. Kids today are more susceptible to this than Millenials as they are actively growing up with their phones and social media and do not remember a time before it. Teen depression rates are higher than ever, and with the stress of school, pressures of conforming on social media, and the added effect of digital procrastination, Gen Z has a lot to deal with it. Removing social media together will never be the solution nor should it be one as it is not practical or helpful, as social media has many benefits. However, social media should become less of a priority for kids as less emphasis should be put on it other than a way to communicate with their friends, and those growing up today could benefit from some time off their beloved devices. The world is so much more than a screen and no price can be truly placed relationships we build with our friends and family in the real world. We should strive for a balance, and just like anything else, too much of social media will hurt us in the long run.