Today the most used social media app is known as Tik Tok. As we all know, social media is a big part played into today’s generation. Social Media is a big part of my life and how I do certain things. Like most teenagers I post videos and pictures and wait for the comments or likes on the post. Everyone has social Media and to fit in I got it too and got addicted.

Social media is a common problem for most teenages and some grown ups. Due to research social media usage went up by 48% ever since covid-19 the US. I believe that teens use social media as a way to go viral and become famous. Teenagers all want to fit in and be noticed by people they like or think are cool. Most social media platforms like to advertise videos so people see them and become interested and eventually get addicted to the app. 

Social media is pronounced as a place to spread positivity and not hate comments and or hate videos made about a person, but is this true? If you were to create an account for social media you can see many hate pages and hate comments on influencers. Teenagesers tend to post things on how they’re feeling on their stories or their own page and not every part of it is positive. There is research showing that most teenagers' mental health goes down because of things they see or the feedback they receive from other creators. As seen on tik tok there are many sad pages posting about suicide and how they are tired mentally. When a person tends to see a sad video with sad music it affects their mood and that is why most teens on social media are sad. 

Every social media platform grows more and more each day as with influencers or creators gaining followers because of their content. Many people don't realize that even if you see a 15 second video of someone smiling,that means they are necessarily happy. Most influencers tend to get hat pages and hate comments commenting about their body or physical features. A lot of people tend to find many funny videos on facebook or instagram and laugh. Now social media can go two ways, you either see funny and happy videos that can make you smile or you see sad videos with sad music and you can become sad from the video or song. It is proven that 13 - 66 percent of teenagers let these sad videos affect their mood and actions.

An OP Ed by Camila Medeles states that “Teens base their love of themselves on social media likes. They believe that they need validation from others to feel wanted and enough.” Camila is saying that teens tend to base their emotions of confidence on what other people think or say. With creators who have fit bodies or a good smile teens tend to look at themself and think that people won't like them because they dont look like other influencers. Teens base their confidence on likes or comments and they may feel as if they don't get thousands of likes if people don't like them or their content. 

We as humans can try and change all these negative comments but no matter what there's always going to be hate speech. As much as we can do, we can report the accounts of what they are commenting on these posts. We can try and change the way we look at things such as just because someone has a straight smile and you don't, it doesn't mean you aren't perfect the way you are. We teens need to build our confidence up and not let people with hate comments get to us and beat us down.

Hate pages are growing more everyday. We need to change how we let those pages or comments affect us and our moods. We as teens are always going to have our days but that's because of how we feel and not what other people say or think because of it.

Raquelle C. is a student at Luther BurBank Highschool in sacramento california. She was born and raised in sacramento california