We live in a world where social media influence everything. It's a complex issue,it has both its positive influence and that of it's negative influence. Since social media is full of lies and fake life, adolescents are most liable to be influenced more negatively than positively . Since, they are in the critical development stage,their way of reasoning, their opinions would be based on what they watch, what they see.
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There is no doubt that there are a lot of positive sides of social media to teenagers. They connect with the with people, meet people, show their talents, use it for more search on something they don't really understand while it's has its negative influence thats where it's becomes addictive to teenagers, it's affects their physical activities ,it makes them lose focus on real life happening and what's real, it's break some because of cyber bullying.
Looking at both side of view, social media shouldn't be banned for adolescents instead even introduced to them because lets be true,it's not only social media that influence adolescent, they are influenced by environment, neighbourhood, they can be influenced with anything they see and interact with, that's their stage.
The solution is teaching them what social media involves, teaching them social media is not to be seen as their role model instead they should just see through the screen and value what is real. They should be taught that all what they see on social media are mostly scripted,they were well edited before posting out there.
They should be given limitation to the time spent on social media, their feed should be monitored, unfollow contents that triggers negativity and create their feed to accommodate inspiring and educational content. They should be taught that meaningful life comes from personal growth, honest work not likes ,shares or followers ,they shouldn't be pressured by online success or achievement rather they should take people who faces real challenges,who work hard and are committed as their role model.
Understanding social media dynamic is very crucial for everyone especially the adolescent during their critical development stage .