Social Media is the Backbone of the 21st Century
Prominent in today’s society, social media can not be turned off because of its addictive nature amongst teenagers.
By Andrew Mauga
Prominent in today’s society, social media can not be turned off because of its addictive nature amongst teenagers.
By Andrew Mauga
Especially popular among teenagers, social media was initially used to share content and give back to the community, but it quickly became the rubric from which people judge others, as well as themselves.
Teachers have taken into account that technology is prevalent in their curriculum, but that leaves room for error. According to McLean Hospital, when graphed over time, studies have shown that social media is one of the major causes of increasing depression and anxiety, but that isn’t always the case.
Devan Dauenhauer, 12, has a screen time of six hours and says that it has negatively affected him.
“Social media is toxic. My attention span has gradually declined because of it,” said Dauenhauer. “Because of TikTok videos being so short, it’s made it to the point where I can’t watch movies anymore.”
For Kavya Shankar, 12, whose daily screen time is only about 3.5 hours, she noticed some changes in how she feels throughout the day.
“It’s kind of hard to measure the long term impact of social media on my brain because I imagine my brain has also changed independently for developmental reasons and I can’t attribute those changes to the phone. But short-term, if I get sucked into the app for hours, I’m 100% going to be in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Like the world's worst nap,” said Shankar, “I scripted my social media apps to display a yes/no option before I open them so I only open them when I have a specific task to accomplish, instead of just using them on instinct.”
On campus, social media and phone usage have become one and the same. Some teachers, such as English teacher Beth Stafford, have found it to be a disruption in classroom settings.
“I see students definitely have their phones out quite a bit. I’m not sure if it’s always social media, maybe games, whatever they’re doing, but it’s definitely a distraction. I think some students are better at managing it than others,” said Stafford.
The Wellness Center has seen an increase in student attendance at the Wellness Center, but whether that is because of social media and technology usage is unknown. However, the Wellness Center coordinators have noticed some of its negative impacts.
“I for sure think there’s a lot of toxicity on social media. There are positives, but in the end it does influence students. It just depends on how their mindset is,” said Wellness Center coordinator Dee Davari.
Despite its prominence in communities, social media’s usage has been entirely up to student discretion. Science teacher Steve Boyd has found that although social media usage remains high, it has not impacted student performance.
“Yes, I see distraction, but at the same time my students at other times are still able to get their work done to an appropriate level,” said Boyd. “Whereas I can see in other classes students are completely distracted all the time by social media.”
In a time where social media has become a normal part of daily life, Stafford wants students to consider their daily phone usage and find ways to mitigate the amount of hours spent on those devices.
“Kind of the way that I look at it is that cell phones are part of everyday life now. They’re not going anywhere. Everybody has one. I think it’s more important to figure out when it is appropriate to check it and when it is not appropriate,” said Stafford.
Teachers have taken into account that technology is prevalent in their curriculum, but that leaves room for error. According to McLean Hospital, when graphed over time, studies have shown that social media is one of the major causes of increasing depression and anxiety, but that isn’t always the case.
Devan Dauenhauer, 12, has a screen time of six hours and says that it has negatively affected him.
“Social media is toxic. My attention span has gradually declined because of it,” said Dauenhauer. “Because of TikTok videos being so short, it’s made it to the point where I can’t watch movies anymore.”
For Kavya Shankar, 12, whose daily screen time is only about 3.5 hours, she noticed some changes in how she feels throughout the day.
“It’s kind of hard to measure the long term impact of social media on my brain because I imagine my brain has also changed independently for developmental reasons and I can’t attribute those changes to the phone. But short-term, if I get sucked into the app for hours, I’m 100% going to be in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Like the world's worst nap,” said Shankar, “I scripted my social media apps to display a yes/no option before I open them so I only open them when I have a specific task to accomplish, instead of just using them on instinct.”
On campus, social media and phone usage have become one and the same. Some teachers, such as English teacher Beth Stafford, have found it to be a disruption in classroom settings.
“I see students definitely have their phones out quite a bit. I’m not sure if it’s always social media, maybe games, whatever they’re doing, but it’s definitely a distraction. I think some students are better at managing it than others,” said Stafford.
The Wellness Center has seen an increase in student attendance at the Wellness Center, but whether that is because of social media and technology usage is unknown. However, the Wellness Center coordinators have noticed some of its negative impacts.
“I for sure think there’s a lot of toxicity on social media. There are positives, but in the end it does influence students. It just depends on how their mindset is,” said Wellness Center coordinator Dee Davari.
Despite its prominence in communities, social media’s usage has been entirely up to student discretion. Science teacher Steve Boyd has found that although social media usage remains high, it has not impacted student performance.
“Yes, I see distraction, but at the same time my students at other times are still able to get their work done to an appropriate level,” said Boyd. “Whereas I can see in other classes students are completely distracted all the time by social media.”
In a time where social media has become a normal part of daily life, Stafford wants students to consider their daily phone usage and find ways to mitigate the amount of hours spent on those devices.
“Kind of the way that I look at it is that cell phones are part of everyday life now. They’re not going anywhere. Everybody has one. I think it’s more important to figure out when it is appropriate to check it and when it is not appropriate,” said Stafford.