Let’s be honest for a moment. Has anyone actually used TikTok or Instagram? As we all know, social media can often be a scam and not entirely genuine. But everyone uses it! It influences every student’s life, has a permanent impact on their personalities, and it’s measurable, too. Multiple universities have conducted studies that confirm, yes, social media can influence you. But when we read these studies, it’s always about the negatives and how overarching everything is, and universities rarely discuss the student-to-student situations. So what is social media, really?
The Negatives
Negative nonsense, disruptive dependencies, and any variation of those words can describe social media. Parents and researchers all agree that social media can “double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes” and reduce academic performance because of either addiction or otherwise. Kentucky has addressed this issue by making phones illegal during class hours, but another issue arises outside the classroom: cyberbullying and lowered student self-esteem.
A lot of these issues are solved either between student and parent early on or learned over time. Social media should be seen as a social outlet; not everyone is perfect, and they have to try or listen to learn what not to do and what to do. However, the way universities propose solutions feels forced and almost fake. It’s hard to accept “having open discussions about body acceptance” as just an easy solution to solving body dysphoria and self-esteem issues. Every student requires their own solution for dealing with social media. But it’s not all negative, for there are some positives to be had!
The Positives
This portion will be significantly smaller, but that’s because many people say the positives are like a broken record. Social media enables students to connect from long distances, share information, and interact without being physically present. Every student has heard their parents or teachers, or any guardian talking about “those darn phones”. Being brutally honest, the positives can’t exactly be put into words because the positives either vary or are so well known that I would just be repeating myself.
Conclusion
Social media is weird. It makes no sense, but makes all the sense at the same time; it has its benefits and drawbacks. However, it’s up to students to determine how they want to use the media and if they want to participate at all. Personally, I don’t use social media, but every student should take a moment to consider why they use social media and how they use it. Hopefully, we won’t need to hear all of this over again. Unless an apocalypse happens, THEN we’ll have to have this talk again.
