Social media and its negative impact on youth

Advancement in technology has made a noticeable impression on everyone’s life and society as a whole. Social media is an example of how things have become easy for people such as communication, gathering information etc. Everyone has access to social media such as Facebook, Instagram etc. It is no more a new thing for people. Apart from benefits, there are numerous disadvantages that leaves an impact on the users especially on youth.

Negative impact of social media on youth

·        Social media addiction

Spending too much time on social media develops addiction due to which teenagers starts isolating themselves and become anti-social. Also it leaves negative impact on their lifestyle i.e sleep, diet etc.

·        Negative impact on studies

School and college going children who spend too much time on different social media platforms starts loosing interest in studies. Also due to poor sleep schedule they are unable to concentrate that eventually leaves an impact on their academic performance.

·        Psychological disorders

Excessive use of social media users suffer from different psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression etc.

·        Low self-esteem

Teenagers on social media are curious to know about other people are living their lives. Whereas on social media people present and portray their lives to be perfect which in reality is not. Due to which they suffer from low self-esteem, depression and they consider themselves worthless.

·        Cyber bullying

Cyber bulling is another issue that has become quite common and teens are experiencing it the most. Due to cyber bullying, the victim suffers from embarrassment, anxiety, depression and starts isolating which can lead to suicide.

·        Self-harming content

Access to self-harming content could be dangerous for children as they try to imitate everything they see on internet just to gain attention and to follow the trend without thinking about the repercussions.

·        Unrealistic beauty standards

Teenagers using social media especially girls becomes conscious about the body image. Unrealistic beauty standards and photo-shopped pictures makes girls conscious about how they look. This leaves adverse effect on their confidence level. As a result, they suffer from depression, low self-esteem and avoid socializing.

·        Stalking

Everything being shared on social media makes it easy for people to stalk. There are many predators on social media that stalk teens as they are easiest to target because they trust people where easily. The predators take advantage of this and makes them do things that they want them to do.

Recommendations

It is important for parents to guide their kids the right use of social media as it is a new thing for them. Cutting off children from social media wont solve the problem. However, there are various ways through which parents can stop the negative impact of social media on teens.

·        Parental control apps can play an important role for parents to keep an eye on their children. 

·        Parents should encourage their children to make plans with their friends for outing etc rather than just spending time with their virtual friends on social media.

·        Parents should have discussion with their children regarding pros and cons of social media and help them understand not to believe everything available online as not everything is real on social media platform. And also help them understand why it is important to limit their time on social media.