Social networking sites and apps are more harmful than helpful

Adelina Palaj

Period 5

November 12, 2018

Prompt: Social networking sites and apps are more harmful than helpful

Almost everyone and their mom has some sort of social network profile. Whether it be Instagram or Facebook, there is a social network for everyone. There’s even a social network site called Gab that was solely created for people who have far right views. It’s the twenty first century, there isn’t a way to get rid of these sites so we might as well embrace them and look at the positive effects of them. I believe that social network sites actually do have positive effects not only for teenagers but all generations.

Facebook was created for the purpose to keep people together and connected. It wasn’t made for kids to be mean to each other and comment mean things on each other’s selfies. We need to go back and look at what the app was created for, not what society has made it. With these apps and sites we can find out if someone had a baby or if someone graduated college. It’s easier than calling people and letting people know. It’s a fast and convenient way for people to stay connected. Looking at social media in this way makes you realize these apps weren’t created so kids could get addicted and wind up falling into a deep hole of self deprecating thoughts, it was created so you could see all your highschool friends getting married and having babies.

Social media can also be educational. Apps like twitter are known for being a main source of news for some people. While this sounds like a bad thing, would you rather teenagers be completely oblivious to current events or have them get information in a more convenient way even if it is a more unorthodox method.  Getting news from instagram and twitter is like killing two birds with one stone. You get to use it for enjoyment purposes and while you’re at it you can find out about what’s going on in your country and even around the world. It’s like mixing broccoli with macaroni and cheese. You’re getting your vegetables, something you may not like that much with something you enjoy which makes the vegetables more enjoyable and you may eat them more.  

Social media isn’t the source of teenager’s problems like most adults will say, it’s actually used as an escape. Many teenagers suffer from anxiety and there are a limited amount of ways to expel it. You could play a sport or maybe draw but for me I always found looking at memes and vines a lot more relaxing. Using social media to take my mind off the many troubles of life is something that I value. It’s a place where I don’t have to worry about school or my parents or anything. Being able to take a minute to go and find something to laugh at makes life a little better. In a world where we have to deal with people, stress, and the political climate and all those serious things it’s nice to know I have place where I could just forget. It seems cliche and something any teenager would say but it actually does help and not many adults know that. When they blame everything on the phone and social media they aren’t realizing that we need social media to get away from them sometimes and it helps us to cope with things.

While social networks could be used for many positive things, this new wave of social media influencers can give hope to teenagers to be something that doesn’t really exist. Many young girls see celebrities like Kylie Jenner and automatically feel as though they should look like her. They don’t see the problems these celebrities suffer, they only see what’s on the screen. Everyone has problems and nobody is perfect but when all we see is perfect, we forget that. This is the downside of social media. Society has made social media a breeding ground for “perfect people with perfect lives” but this shouldn’t be the case. Social media should go back to its roots, we should use it to see what our family is up to, to escape the many problems of life or to read up on some current events.