High school is a lot of things—four years of football games, dances, school work, friend groups, and social media.
Social media, over the years, has shaped how people are viewed in school. It is a representation of how you are viewed by your peers in high school. Social media is the easiest access teens have to building relationships, meeting new people, figuring out their college roommate, and even being able to see Almost Friday on Barstool. It can provide information and reminders on school events. Social media can show an athlete’s best games and worst games; it can provide stats for a whole team. Social media can make edits on specific sports teams or help you put a face to a name when remembering a peer. Social media can provide a fun space to post and share your life and be a fun hobby. Social media can also make you out to be someone you are not. Rumors spreading online, pressure to be a perfect person, how an athlete can be misunderstood, etc. Social media can absolutely kill a person’s reputation in seconds no matter if it is true or not.
Social media should be free to post updates on your day-to-day life with no judgment and nobody watching your every move. Yet, this fun idea of letting people express themselves turns into mental health reports. Forty-one percent of teens who average up to three hours a day on social media report poor mental health, and 10 percent of them report suicidal intent. Teenagers who are constantly on social media are twice as likely to be depressed or have severe anxiety compared to teens who are rarely on social media. The suicide rates significantly increased after 2012, a period in time when social media popularity and smartphone usage were introduced. Not only do these numbers indicate that social media can have a bad reflection on teenagers, but it can also put teens into mental hospitals, which is a lot more serious than society talks about. Social media can be such a fun and prime example of entertainment, but can also be an example of cyberbullying. When using social media, keep in mind that you have no right to judge, assume or spread rumors. Keep social media fun, lighthearted and a place that can be entertaining rather than suffocating.
