What is Social Media

Social media started off as a platform on the internet to keep in touch with your friends or families, where you can share photos, text, and even videos. It essentially enables you to keep in touch with the people you want to keep in touch with, the ability to share content and thoughts in an instant no matter where you are. This really lets us connect with loved ones and make the world a nicer place. But there’s another feature that might harm the way younger generations behave: the feature to meet with random people.

But wait, you might say, won’t just walking outside and saying “hi” have the same effect? Isn’t that a normal thing? Yes, but here’s the thing: first of all, most of the “meeting people on the internet” is often in the form of a username and a profile picture, which is often enough not the person’s face. This then presents a case where a lot of times you won’t know much about the person you’re talking too. And some teenagers prefer to engage online rather than in person. Why is that? And is it a good thing?

What makes social media so appealing to teenagers?

Social media is often represented as something teenagers use, why? I am focusing on using social media to meet new people, new friends, not the keeping in touch part. What makes it so special and appealing to teenagers that some teenagers even get addiction to social media. Why is talking on the internet with people you don’t know, better than talking with people in real life? I was confused, so I wanted to find out for myself.

I used discord for about a month or so, joining random servers, talking with random people, and overall getting the full internet community experience. I quickly learned that it’s addicting to some people because the community is open. People can talk and meet with people who like the things they like; they can get support from the people who share the same thoughts, feelings, or interests. You have the ability to choose who you want to talk to, what kind of person you want to meet. And that is the main reason why teenagers or young adults are so fond of using social media, because they can be who they want to be. 

But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, because when someone becomes so fond of an online community, they get attached, and there are teenagers who do get attached. 

Online relationships

In my experience of using discord, I have seen many many people take online relationships, as legitimate. From online friends to even online girl/boyfriends, they take these relationships as real, and how can you blame them.

There is a person behind that account, there is a special personality you can see, it’s not all empty. And teenagers are very fond of platforms like these because they can meet people who they like, without ever being worried about being ridiculed or judged. That is also where the problem resides. 

Teenagers are naturally self conscious about the way they look and or act, and sometimes a teenager might not be very happy about themselves, yet they still want to connect with other people, they want to be loved, they want friendships, they want to be part of a community. This then means that teenagers needed to change the way they behave, they needed to change the way they act, they needed to improve to stay in a community, to be accepted. But on the internet, there is little to no ridicule or judgement. You don’t have to worry about self improvement because you don’t need to show people who you really are, you don’t have to show them anything about you other than your personality and your thoughts. There’s no reason to worry about judgement, because all the friends are like you, you can choose who you want to be. This may seem like a good thing, because it is.

How it can affect teenagers

So why do I think this will make teenagers weak? Simply due to the fact that they don’t have to worry about problems surrounding their social aspects, they don’t need to care about being socially awkward or seek for improvement, as they don’t have to worry about it on the internet. But the internet is not real life, it doesn’t matter how close or connected you are over the internet, face to face will always be superior. Therefore if we let teenagers practise these behaviours, letting them get used to the internet and the way it behaves, what will happen to them in the future.

Will they not have to fight for equality or rights, not have to worry about the outside world, won’t need to care about what other people think. All because they have their online friends, their online community. They don’t need to experience the world around them, they can just live in their small world not worrying about anything. And then what happens when they grow up, will they have to resort to the same limited online world?

Furthermore the anonymity of it can hurt them too. There are numerous, widely reported cases where people get bullied on the internet, they get shamed and they feel bad and sometimes might get depression. The internet can house a wide variety of people, and sometimes bad people might lurk around it too. Therefore the internet might not always be a fun and wholesome place.

What’s my point? Is it good or bad? The internet is good. There are many good things that can happen in social media, but letting teens use it to an extent that they start mixing between online and real life, can hurt them. Teenagers are teenagers, they aren’t adults, so we need to limit their use on social media. The internet will never be real life, and teens need to know the difference before it’s to late.