Most of us today are engaged in social media regardless of age and status in life, but did we ever stop and check the effect whether good or bad? Today we will tackle the effects of social media on the younger generations a.k.a "the youth". Most of the so called millennials nowadays are so engaged in social media that they spend most of their time scrolling up and down through their smart phones, but do they know the effects of such lifestyle? Let's enumerate both the good and bad effects based on my own observation(from the teens in my community).
Fact: Based on studies, an average person spends more time on their gadgets(cellular phone, tablets, personal computers) than sleeping.
Let's start off with the good, who wouldn't want to hear the good stuff first rather than the bad. So with that out of the way let's get started.
Good Effects
These effects are good to the user whether it's mental, physical or emotional aspects.
Education
Education is the best legacy our parents can leave us with, at least that's what my parents used to tell me on many occasions. So education made it on the top of the list, students engaged in social media are more likely find it easier to fetch information they need for their studies than the traditional method of going to the school/public library. With the help of social media, they can easily connect with other students or in some cases they even resort to professional advice from pages they follow or like.
Information Outsourcing
Just like what I mentioned on the first item, which is education, you can gather information with just a few clicks with the help social media and of course the internet. But, it is not limited to information gathering but also information sharing, they can share information that needs to be share with just a few clicks and only a fraction of a second delay. Information drive has never been this practical and easy. Thinking back in the days when we have to print leaflets or posters to share information about something. Lucky kids, they have it easy during their time nowadays.
Job Opportunities and Social Benefits
These two comes in hand in hand in my opinion because in the real world, the more connections you have the greater your chances of landing on a desired job or occupation. And what greater way do you make connections? Obviously it is by socializing with others, may it be in your school, your community or the entire country.
The Bad
Well, there nothing much to say about this but, "the opposite of good".
Education/Work Distraction
What better way to distract as studying student? try playing a loud track from your youtube playlist, or show him an interesting, lewd, graphic video posts on facebook. Sure as hell his attention would be redirected to the distraction, especially during long study hours where study or a simple review would feel like eternal torment from hell itself.
Good Source of Wrong Information a.k.a Fake News
Anyone can post on social media, it's just like spreading wrong information by word of the mouth, the big difference however is, anonymity. If you spread fake information by word of the mouth(also known as gossip), the chances of you being traced is almost 100%, that's the scary thing about social media, anonymity is your best bet if you wanna mess with someone's reputation or credibility without the source being traced back.
Privacy Issue and Crime Susceptibility
By using the platform, some social media requests authorizations or even grant them full access to your private information like contacts, storage, activities and even location. Need I say more? obviously if you're not careful with these authorization request you're more likely to be a sitting duck for evil doers, and most likely vulnerable to evil acts like sexual assaults.
Most Efficient Way to Kill TIME
"Time is GOLD", or "Time is PRECIOUS". Those are the most basic lessons taught to us even during nursery days, to value time as priceless. There are no riches in this world that could buy back wasted time. And that's why social media is bad in some aspect, is simply because it kills time efficiently and effortlessly, and it's(social media) quite good at it.
There you have it folks, those are the effects of social media on teens or younger generations based on my observations. In my case I have 2 sons, and as much as possible I limit their time on gadgets(tablet and phones) and definitely "Parental Control" enabled on youtube and Chrome on all devices inside the household.
Tip:If you want spend time on social media, then spend wisely, spend it all on steemit!
I hope you enjoyed reading this little article. Kindly up-vote this post if you find this informative and a good-read. If you have any suggestions on a topic you want me to publish next kindly leave a comment. I'll try to make it possible to the best of my abilities.
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