Social Media If I told you social media is balefuling to today's youth, would you believe me? Social media can and is being harmful to our youth. Social media as a whole may look like a friendly environment, but social media is filled with misunderstandings, cyberbullying, and false information. There are so many inappropriate and negative things on social media that affect our youth. Having said this, there are too many harmful availabilities in social media. First of all, social media enables the spread of false information. For example, the article “Are Social Networking Sites Good for Our Society” states, “49.1% of people have heard false news via social media.” This proves how easy it is for anyone to post information that is not true or invalid. A few weeks ago my school was hit with a snow storm, along with this snow storm came freezing temperatures. Thanks to these temperatures, school for the next two days would be canceled. The way they gave out this information about school was through Facebook. The only problem with this way of doing things is that it was never done like that before, and since anyone can post something about school being closed it made many parents hesitant on whether or not there was school. Soon after the post was sent, the school called saying that school was closed. Even though the post was correct information it just shows how precarious one should be about Social Media. In addition, social media is so harmful because of cyberbullying. For example, cyberbullying can start when people from different cliques or social groups begin talking to each other about different topics. Many groups or cliques have their own opinions that differ from other cliques. An example of this is when topics like, what hairstyle is better are discussed between the cliques, disagreements or disputes can start. The reason the disagreeing turns into cyberbullying is because many people nowadays communicate through social media, arguments can get much more heated and hurtful on social media rather than in person. People feel more confident behind the screens than in person because face to face people get afraid to express their opinion. Another example is the article “Cyberbullying” where it states, “Teens can easily take photographs of others in private or embarrassing situations.” For this reason is why so many teens become cyberbullied or bullied, because of information that was never meant to be seen on social media or anywhere on the internet. Lastly, misunderstandings on social media can have a huge affect on teens. For example, on Twitter, post or messages can only be 140 characters long. Unfortunately, this is how misconceptions and confusions arise. In the article “Twitter” it says, “A disadvantage of such short messages is that they are easily misunderstood.” The reason for these misunderstandings is because sometimes things you have to say can not be expressed in only 140 characters. In addition, people have began to share their feelings in only 140 characters by abbreviating, or using “tho” instead of “though.” But even with this style of writing there are still false impressions. For example, only a few weeks ago I saw a post on twitter that said “People just don't understand my problems.” Not only is this very blunt and short, but it does not really say why they feel this way or who they are trying to point out. Simple things like this make us curious to whether or not we are to blame for that person's feelings or not, which can cause misunderstanding. Twitter is not the only app known for short posts, snapchat is another social app that has difficulty with misinterpretation. Many social media sites share this problem which is one more reason why it is not good for teens. However, Social Media does have a few bright sides such as being able to communicate at vast speeds (Allison, “Facebook), being able to express yourself, and helping people find jobs (“Are Social Networking Sites Good for Society”). But thanks to such vast speeds of communication it leads to arguments over misunderstanding, due to short comments or pictures. It's also possible that the information spread by jobs are false. Another problem with expressing yourself is people open up in different ways. For example, the article “Why Some 13 Year­Olds Check Social Media 100 Times a Day” states “15% of teens in this study reported receiving inappropriate photos, and those that did were 50% more distressed than the rest of the students in the study.” This shows how different people express themselves in different ways, Unfortunately most of the time it is either inappropriate or not meant for the eyes of the young, which is why social media is harmful to our teens. In conclusion, it is obvious to see that social media is unhealthy and unsafe for today's youth, especially when it comes to false information and cyberbullying. Many people don't realize how hurtful they can be until they log on social media. That's why cyberbullying has become what it is today, which is something very unhealthy for our generation. Overall, I challenge you to help make social media a less harmful environment. You can do this by using better judgement and you can press the report button or block any inappropriate or bullying like behaviors on social media. Works Cited Allison, Mary Ann, “Facebook.” ​
World Book Student. ​
World Book, 2016. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. ​
Allison, Mary Ann. "Twitter." ​
World Book Student​
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SocialNetworking.procon.org. ​
24 Mar 2015. Web. 10 Mar 2016. Hinduja, Sameer, and Justin W. Patchin. "Cyberbullying." ​
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