The Negative Effects Of Social Media And Smartphones On Teens

The light blares the bright, springtime color. A surge of hope rushes through the car, maybe the meeting will be postponed. Suddenly, the car’s brakes are slammed, but it’s too late. A young woman, no older than seventeen rushes out of her car, and apologizes, “Sorry, my friends were snapchatting me!” Distracted driving is one of the many negative impacts of social media. Despite the numerous negative consequences, there are still numerous positive outcomes such as, increased communication skills, a new form of occupations, independence, and even identity discovering, leading to the debate between whether the benefits outweigh the repercussions, allowing for the question, how do the impacts of social media and smartphones affect teenagers’

While most adults found their identity through school and friends when they were young, teenagers now use social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to explore their identities. Teens are able to explore different interests of their preference and can gather information from different perspectives. Most teens can find information about current events through social media, instead of a news broadcaster resulting in a greater opportunity to further their identity (Teens). Along with being able to connect with friends, a majority of teens admitted to using their devices in order to get help with their homework (Kendall). The aspect of being able to share information within seconds was found as extremely helpful for those who needed help on assignments. However, as many positives effects as there are, many teens cannot deny that their mental health has declined since accessing a smartphone or computer. Nina asks, “Why would a tool that keeps you connected at all times contribute to loneliness,” (Strochlic). It’s simple, lack of sleep. The number of teens who do not sleep enough has greatly increased since the smartphones have been more accessible to the common person. Teens lack a healthy mental state, which has dramatically caused the national

If the mental and physical behavior of teenagers continues in the path that it’s at today, the state of the next generation’s adolescents may be even worse. Cell phones and teens are a very complicated issue because ultimately there is no way to stop the advancement of technology, but there are so many side effects, whether they are positive or negative. After doing research, my stance is that parents should teach their children to limit themselves from using their phones for social media to a certain number of hours. By doing so, the children will be able to access their world on the internet, while still remaining connected to the world physically. A change that could be made is incorporating research about the effects of daily phone usage in health classes around the world. Allowing for the child to make decisions for themselves, and see both sides of the