It's no longer new that social media is part of almost everything we do this days. Teenagers especially are so into it that sometimes you begin to wonder if it's a blessing or a curse. When I look around, I see young people with their eyes glued to their phones, sometimes even in class or when they should be reading. It makes me ask myself, is social media affecting their mental health? Is it helping their learning or making it worst?
I won't lie, social media has both good and bad side when it comes to adolescents. Mentally, some of them are going through alot but you won’t see it on their faces. Social media can put pressure on them to look or live a certain way. Seeing other people always looking perfect online, doing big things, travelling, wearing fine clothes, it can make some of them feel like they’re not enough or not doing well. That’s where depression, low self esteem, and anxiety comes in. They begin to doubt themselves and sometimes they just withdraw from everybody.
But on the other side, social media has also help some young people to open up, find support groups, and connect with people going through the same thing. Some of them feel safer talking to strangers online than even family. So it’s not all bad, it depends on how it is used.
Talking about learning, social media has really change the way we learn. Back then we had to go to library or wait for teacher, but now one can learn almost anything on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and even Facebook. There are study groups on WhatsApp, online courses, educational pages, even motivational quotes flying up and down. Some students are now learning faster and becoming brilliant because they see learning in a fun way. It’s no longer boring.
But again, let’s not pretend like social media hasn’t also made some of them lazy. Many don’t want to do research anymore, they just copy assignment from the internet and move on. Some even cheat during exam using WhatsApp or Telegram groups. That kind of learning doesn’t stay long in the brain. So while learning has become easier, the quality of learning has dropped for some people.
Also, there is this attitude of “short attention span” that comes with social media. Because everything is now short videos, short quotes, short answers, some students can’t even focus for long anymore. Reading textbook feels like punishment to them. They just want to scroll and swipe all day.
Me I believe that social media is like a knife. It can be used to cook or to harm. It depends on how the person using it handles it. If parents, teachers, and even the students themselves can set boundaries and use it wisely, then it can really help in learning and even mental health. But if there's no control, it can destroy slowly.
We can't take social media away from our lives now, it’s already part of us. But we can guide how it's used especially for adolescents. Because this is the age where they’re still growing and learning to understand themselves. If care is not taken, social media will raise them in a wrong way.
So in summary, social media affects adolescent mental health and learning both positively and negatively. It all depends on the usage. It can make them brilliant or make them lazy. It can make learning easy, or make cheating look like smartness. It's a tool, not the teacher. We just have to teach them how to use it well.
Thanks very much
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