“MEMES, MEMES EVERYWHERE… TIK TOK EVERYONE SAYS, WHERE THE HELL ARE REAL IDENTITIES FOUND”
Precisely, Social media is addictive as it gives us
something which the real world lacks. No doubt, It provides a platform to
express our opinions and share our personal stuff with our closed ones, but the
indulgence of youth in social media is increasing at an alarming rate.
Everything they do has to be posted on social platforms and shared among the
people.
Social media has transformed the entire world into
a global village where people can interact freely at a single click. Youths
were never inspired by any emerging phenomena that much until social media came
to the fore. A survey conducted by TCS showed - 65%of the teenagers use cell
phones, 72% of them have direct access to the internet. These facts are enough
to know that teenagers are getting involved more and more in social media.
Someone has rightly said that “Don’t use social media to impress people, use social media to impact people”.
How the overindulgence of youth in social media
affects them:
1. LESS SOCIAL IN REALITY
This is a very major problem these days. Teenagers
are more active on social media and therefore spend very less time with friends
and family. They are only bothered about the latest updated. They are always
aware of the new tik tok videos and stars but they forget about their loved
one's birthdays. This shows that social media has made children so much
addictive that they are socially active but fails to be active in reality.
2. CYBERBULLYING
The incidents of cyberbullying mostly take place on social networking sites and blow down pages. While 30% of the students in middle and high school have been identified as victims or culprits, 18% of the affected students are girls as compared to 12% of boys. Unfortunately, 15% of these victims attempt suicide out of depression. This is a great loss to their parents who have always wished for their well being.
3. ELECTRONIC AGGRESSION
The harassment caused by emails, chat rooms,
instant messaging, text messages, fake websites, etc, also poses a major threat
to the privacy and safety of youngsters over social media. The report says 9%
to 35% of youngsters have been affected by electronic aggression at any point
of their young age.
4. LACK OF PRIVACY
When online, Young people are too often open or public with personal information. Most don’t read privacy policies and may be unaware that their information may be used by third parties like advertisers, insurance companies and IRS. 21% of teens believe it is safe and harmless to post personal information, including photos. This becomes the major reason for depression among the students and which also lead to various kinds of disorders.
5. MISINFORMATION
It enables the spread of false rumours and
unreliable information. 49.1% of users have read false news on social media. It
also encourages amateur medical advice and self- diagnosis of health problems,
which can be dangerous and life-threatening.
“To conclude we can say that social media is far overused in today’s world and should be severely limited. They are a mixed bag, if used carefully they can be most beneficial and if not, then it can be the most dangerous thing you will ever come across your life. Teens need to limit their use on social media so that they don’t have to face problems later. So use social media but to that extent which is healthy. Too much of everything is dangerous”.