The Stark Anti-Social Nature of Social Media by Victoria Thurer

Do you ever take breaks while doing your homework? Do you use your phone during these breaks and find yourself opening several different social media apps? Amongst those apps, do you ever find yourself just scrolling through some nice photos, until all of a sudden you look up to check the time and it’s been a half hour or more?

Now, I know this applies to more than 75 percent of the people in this room alone. Just think about how many people it affects in this school altogether.

Let that sink in.

Imagine how many minutes are wasted each and every day using these devices. Not only is technology a distraction, but it also causes people to procrastinate and leads to a lack of common sense. According to Bill Gates, these new sites have given people “access to information and the ability to give a voice to people who would have never been heard.”

But is that really true?

Has technology really been benefiting our communication skills and effectiveness by what, staring at a screen all day? If one wanted a voice in society, there are several other ways to go about it and do so.

What social media really is doing is slowly killing our brains. The more and more we invest in it generation by generation, the higher the chance of sleep deprivation among adolescents, which is one of the top reasons students cannot progress in their educational systems. We all know of a common social media user, Khloe Kardashian, who even tweeted herself that we have “so many social outlets, so many ways to be stalked and bullied.” Not only do these outlets appeal to the knowledge of our minds, but also allow one to have the audacity to pressure and harm others online. You’ve all heard of cyberbullying, I’m sure, but it gets worse than that. How about 18-year-old Tyler Clementi who jumped off the George Washington Bridge because of a sexual encounter purposely leaked on Facebook? Or Sarah Lynn, a seventh grader with her whole life ahead of her, teased and bullied, later found dead from a drug overdose? On her MySpace account, the last words sent to her were that she was just a “stupid little naïve girl and nobody would ever miss her.” The fact that we all just sat around and did nothing about this is horrifying. Now, yes, those events have been in the past and we cannot change them. The real question is: What about now? What about our future?

And you might be sitting here thinking this doesn’t directly affect you because you would never intentionally do such things and I get that, we’re all good kids. However, it is the overuse and daily obsession with social media that lead to these sad stories so frequently heard. It might only be a small number of people going after others’ lives this way, but it does happen, and our society as a whole should care. So what are we going to do about it?

Well, I’m sure you’ve be told to “put your phone away” or “get off your phone” from your parents or teachers. This isn’t the ultimate solution, though, because for the most part that doesn’t stop anyone. I’m not saying to promise not to use your phone so often. Rather, use it intelligently with a beneficial purpose. Maybe, instead of using Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or whatever it may be so frequently throughout your day, you can set aside a given time to do so and only for that certain amount of time. Or, you could even put those apps on an iPad or computer so they aren’t in your pocket all day long. Trust me, I get that these accounts are addicting and entertaining. It’s okay to be on them. Once we figure out how to manage our time and recognize our limits, this process will become a lot easier.

I cannot guarantee that you will do this. However, I can ensure you that with this, studies have shown more sleep hours, a healthier mind, better test grades, and an overall success in your educational pursuits.

And what could be better than that?