Rise of social media usage affects young people

Delaney Walker, Social media editor

Social media has constantly been developing and becoming more and more essential to people’s everyday lives. Apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Tiktok are meant to entertain and help users connect with others on a daily basis. But these applications have ended up becoming the vocation of many. And from such patterns spawn companies like Marketing Heaven that provide the base for people to carry out businesses online.

One of the first things people do when they wake up is check their social media accounts, and that process often carries on with them throughout their day. People constantly monitor their accounts, whether it is when they are at home, school, special events or even when they are out with friends and family. For instance, some students have difficulty staying away from their phones during class, and as soon as class is over they dive straight to their phones to view their social media accounts. 

Addiction is the condition of being addicted to something in particular, and this goes for social media. Social media now has the power to control our lives in all types of ways, both positively or negatively. 

People are constantly stressing over whether they have enough followers and likes; many people even take down posts if they do not reach a certain amount of likes or views. Not only do people stress over likes, but people become self-conscious if not enough people comment on their posts.  

Body image and self-confidence has been a prevalent issue for many years, but the amount of social media usage is continuing to make it worse. Every day young children and teenagers see photos of what the ideal person should look like. This causes people to over analyze themselves and others consistently, whether it is directly stated or not. 

The development of the internet “personalities” have emerged with the use of social media, for example, the rise of VSCO girl and e-boy personas. These all began with the obsession of VSCO, which is a photography app where users can edit and share photos, and it slowly made its way to Tik Tok, where people of all ages dress as these “personalities” and dance to sounds and music.  

People have even begun to lose communication skills and have developed thumb pains, from the constant scrolling and typing.  

Communication is extremely important for human beings, but since people are always staring at their screens, they end up texting one another instead of using their own words. People find it much easier to type rather than call who they want to speak to, whether they feel more comfortable or it is just easier overall. As of today, people have a hard time expressing their true feelings.  It is unclear whether this is from the increasing amount of social media usage or not, but judging by the way people use their social media accounts, it most likely is.  

This can go along with the fact that there are several reports of people feeling lonely and isolated due to social media. This is caused because the only main source of human communication, which is social media, lacks a sense of fulfillment and true engagement.  

It is extremely clear that the amount of social media usage is too much and it is beginning to affect people in all sorts of ways. Social media has become an everyday necessity for people, due to people’s need to consistently check on it and update their profiles.