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Social Media is safe for Teenagers. Really?
Medically reviewed by
Social Media is Fun
Social media has provided a wide base for people to express their opinions and ideas, giving aspiring artists and entrepreneurs a platform to launch their businesses.
Many Youtubers and Viners are recognized by large masses worldwide, for their videos. There are many bloggers, too, who are known widely.
Social media is a fun way of interacting with people across the globe.
But, not very safe.
Everything Wrong with this Generation
Teenagers of this generation have been given excessive liberties with the internet and have become increasingly dependent on it as well.
We see children of various age groups on almost every social media site there is, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Vine, Tumblr, Snapchat, Gmail, Yahoo and the list goes on. Nearly all teenagers- adolescents, too- have at least two or more of these social media accounts.
Everything Wrong with Social Media
While, on one hand, social media is beneficial and keeps them updated about the events taking place around the world, it also exposes them to material that is not suitable for their age groups.
Teenagers have highly impressionable minds and everything that is disclosed to them must be carefully reviewed by the parents. But social media does not require parental consent. They have easy access to GIFs, videos and memes which are inappropriate for their age on many occasions.
Once you have access to the internet, you can retrieve almost any information, sites and videos.
Almost every social media site has content floating around that is unsuitable for young adults and kids.
Everything wrong with Tumblr
Tumblr has plenty GIFs that are visually inappropriate and have sexual content. These posts are usually labelled as “NSFW” or “Not Suitable For Work”, as a warning that it is not appropriate and is not to be accessed by kids. But this doesn’t stop the young, curious minds from exploring.
Everything Wrong with Wattpad
Many sites like Wattpad and fanfiction.net enable writers to publish their stories free of cost online, but comprise largely erotica, more popularly known as ‘smut’ or ‘lemon’. These stories, too, have ratings like PG-13, PG(Parental Guidance) and R(Mature), also as a precaution for readers. This again, doesn’t stop the users from reading these stories.
Everything Wrong with Instagram and Facebook
People upload a lot of photos on Instagram and Facebook, where they are partying, drinking, smoking, couples kissing, girls wearing bikinis to almost nothing. This is not at all appropriate, seeing as there are children starting from the age of 6 on these sites, being able to gain access to these pictures.
The Fault in Our Social Media
The fault here, is that all of these sites portray drinking, smoking, doing drugs and having sex as the ‘cool’ thing to do. This causes the teenagers to start believing the same, and acting upon it.
There are a lot of stories and fanfiction that sketch a story of a girl falling in love with a bad boy, making him fall in love with her and changing him forever. This creates a cliché, building into every girl’s ultimate fantasy, making her chase after the bad boys. This, in turn, encourages boys to be ‘badass’ in an attempt to attract girls.
These stories also portray love as the ultimate goal, the key to happiness. Teenagers then, get distracted from everything that is, in fact, pivotal for a good life, compelling them to neglect their studies and values.
Facebook and internet dating sites often enable one to give out false information about oneself, including age, appearance, likes and dislikes. These frequently result in girls being falsely educated about the men on these sites, and also amounting to rapes.
Not to mention, racism is raging on many such sites, people concealing it by calling it an ‘expression of their opinions’.
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Effect on Teenagers
Teens post racy and controversial pictures, in order to feel more socially accepted and in the hopes to gain recognition.
Not only does the Internet paint a wrong picture of the world and incorrect details that is made available for adolescents, but also brainwashes them to think that way, influencing everything they do.
Limited Access
Despite the ill-effects of Social Media, it would be extremely difficult as well as unfair to the teenagers to cut off all access to social media from them. It would be better to keep their accessibility in check, give them limited and supervised access to social media.
