How Social Media Effects Teens

Eighty-five percent of our school uses some form of social media on a daily basis. Whether it is sending a silly Snap on Snapchat to a friend, posting a picture of the last meal you ate on Instagram, or tweeting deep things about life on Twitter, social media is a large part of many lives in our school.  Mrs. Kuehn, the Counseling Secretary at our school, explained her thoughts on how social media can effect teenagers at this school. With kids of her own that use social media regularly, Kuehn said “I just love the fact that you can learn and find out more about the world around us, and you know, I love using Facebook to connect with people I haven’t heard from since high school.” She said that it can effect teens in a positive way by giving them an opportunity to communicate online.

Kuehn also stated the negative aspect of social media. “The bullying has gotten out of hand in this generation. When I first started a few years back, there was a student who came close to killing himself because of bullying that was happening on social media.” Kuehn said that many kids have come to her feeling insecure about themselves because of the bullying that has happened on social media. She explained how although social media can be a positive influence in teens at our school, it can also be used as a tool for targeting other kids and putting them down.

Sophomore Isabelle Ivankovich also shared her views on how social medias like Instagram and Twitter can have both positive and negative effects. With over one thousand followers on Instagram and over seven hundred on Twitter, Ivankovich said “Even just a simple subtweet on Twitter can really ruin someone’s day.” Ivankovich said that she has gotten subtweeted multiple times, and it makes her feel sad every time it happens. “When people want to be mean, but don’t want to say it to your face, they’ll just put it in a tweet and aim it towards you.” She said.

She explained that she once had an offensive Instagram page aimed toward her and it said rude things about her and her friends, so she knew what it was like to be put down on social media. “I also think it can positively influence us, though, I have a lot of cousins in Ireland and without social media I wouldn’t be able to keep in touch with them regularly.” Ivankovich said. She explained how although she has gotten put down multiple times because of social media, she is also thankful for it because she can communicate with people outside the country.

For someone who has quite a large following on social media, Ivankovich said that she knows how much of an impact social media can leave on a teen these days. Social media is a necessary evil that seems to be here to stay. Whether the impact is negative or positive, it definitely leaves a mark.