Social media is causing both positive and negative effects on others, especially teens.

Social media has been a big part of the world for a long time, starting in the mid-1990s and slowly improving and becoming newer and more advanced. Well, how do people really feel about social media? 

In my opinion, I think social media can both cause positive and negative effects to people. People have used the following social media: Instagram, Tiktok, Snapchat, and more. I believe that social media is causing negative effects to people, especially teens and younger people, but there are some bright sides to it. 

People have talked about how social media can really affect someone’s well-being, while others talk about how useful it is and how easy it is to get information from an app or somewhere online. 

POSITIVES: 

A positive is that on social media, people have more access to quick information. This is good because this can help students with their work and help them study and understand school topics. Not only that, having more quick access to information can help teens understand other perspectives and can communicate with others more fluently.

Another positive that social media causes is that it gives out great remote employment opportunities. This is good because this can reduce a lot of things, such as commute time, costs, and associated stress, which leads to more time to manage other parts of life more efficiently and can cause less work life conflict. 

NEGATIVES: 

Those are just some of the positive social media gives out, but what does social media do that is negative? Well, there are also a lot of things social media does that are negative, including social media being addicting and also causing people to have self-image issues. 

Social media being addictive is pretty bad by itself. I interviewed a college student and asked about their perspective on social media. 

He stated that,“I believe social media gives out a negative effect, because social media doesn’t really help me with anything and wastes my time. I do go on social media but when I would I get sucked in and get distracted. I could be doing so many more things instead of just going on social media.” 

As you can see, social media is not really helpful, apart from giving out information. Yes, sure you can get information out from social media, but can you really do that when distracted or sucked in? 

Another con is that people have self image issues. Having self image issues can really take a toll on someone’s mental health and can cause depression and anxiety. Having mental health issues is, of course, not good because it will increase the risk of suicide and cause human rights violations. 

Those are some of the effects of social media. 

What do other people have to say about their feelings on social media?

Gabi Carrico, a junior from a different state, asked to see what her perspective was on social media. 

She has said that social media was a way for her to express herself to people who are relatable to her. 

“Social media is an outlet to express myself and find people who share the same interests as me. Throughout my life, especially over quarantine I spent my time creating bonds with people across the nation, they’ve given me friendships I cherish and would never have found without social media so I am very grateful to it despite its ability to harm one’s confidence or mental health,” Carrico said. 

Carrico has also said that we should focus on the positives instead of the negatives.

“However I think you must focus on the positives and surround yourself with those who bring you up while on the internet, and not let the negative aspects of it consume you. I use many types of social media like Instagram, Tiktok, and Snapchat, yet none of it has affected me,” she explained. 

As you can see, there are a lot of positives and negatives on social media. It both helps people and brings them down. Even if there are a lot of cons about social media, there are some bright sides to it as well.