“There is no "peace and quiet" anymore because we literally do not turn off. If we are bored, if we are waiting to pick up our kid from school or if we are at a basketball game, we are on our phones,” stated Marketing & Communications manager, Britney Uelmen. For the past decade the rising use of social media has been insuppressible. Even the most basic human interactions have been dramatically changed by the digital uproar. It no longer exists that a student can walk down a hallway at school without seeing someone on a phone, hearing drama about a new post or walk into a restaurant without seeing heads down.

According to Ally C., a high school sophomore and frequent user of social media, she has become addicted to it. “I like having my phone with me and being able to go through social media. I guess it gives me a sense of being a part of what’s going on.”  And what’s going on is melodramatic teens secluding themselves from the real world to search for worth instead.

Many people are staying away from social media to avoid becoming addicted and pulled into a constant judging zone. “Sometimes I feel a little left out if my friends forget to inform me of something,” said Melissa Spelman, a teen that is not on social media. “I used to take it personally and then I started blaming my parents, but now I learned to just get over it. I don’t want to end up being like most of America who can’t handle being away from their phones for even a day.” Spelman is recognizes the steady caos, like Uelmen mentioned, in the world today. She also understands that life is better unplugged, with no anxieties or pressures of the world.

Around the years of 2005, after thousands of years with face-to-face the main way of communication, social media boomed and became a billion dollar industry. LinkedIn, Friendster and MySpace encaptured people with cool, “hip” ways to connect with people of similar interests. Only a few years later Facebook launched a platform that linked thousands of apps to it and allowed more personal decisions with the “like” button. And around the same time was Twitter with the “tweet” and built popularity as well with its’ unique uses. Google Hangouts was thrown in, as well as the creation of video chatting.

After two years and the continued additions to the web worlds, smartphones came about (also known as “Fourth screen” technology). It was built to be functional and fit the user’s daily needs. The “need” for looking things up and contacting people, soon turned into addictions with the devices and social media platforms.

“Their desire to participate in social media websites, such as checking Facebook or Twitter, was only surpassed by their desires to sleep and have sex,” stated Vito Pilieci in his article, “Do Social Networks Make Us Sick?” The motives to the participation may vary, but for Ally it is mainly to be up to date on friends’ and families’ lives.
Ally has decided upon using each platform for slightly different needs. For example, when she needs to discuss something quickly she would text that person, but if it was with a friend and it needed a little more explaining, she would Facetime them. 

Brooke Lusk informs on the overall uses in “Digital Natives and Social Media Behaviors: An Overview. Apparently, 91% of teens say they mostly use the sites to keep in contact with friends that they frequently see, 82% use the site to keep in touch with someone they rarely see, 72% make social plans, while 44% say they use them to meet new people.

Social media offers many great things including opportunities to meet new people, exploring new things, and the ability to ask questions anonymously that can help secure identity without added pressure.

Social media attracts by creating a place to constantly stay connected with friends and explore interests, but there are also many risks involved in doing so. These opportunities all help, especially youth, to learn more about culture. Digressing in fundamental categories as such is important in adolescent development. Lusk also said that the earnings will be able to be used later in life to succeed in academic, social, and professional settings. But, with good, comes bad.

There are many risks in doing the previously mentioned, causing the most common reminders to be to not post excessive amounts of personal information online, not bring down other people in comments, etc. Although these are good and important reminders, but evaluating the possible ways someone else could interpret what you are about to send, might be just as important and helpful in the future.

The everyday feuds on social media aren’t always on the big stuff. Like for Ally, it was always over “stupid stuff.” She said that the issues she has had with people on social media were always over something that doesn’t matter now. She says that those pesky issues it shows not to try causing problems on social media, because it’s immature and pointless.

But, there are those immature people that cause full-grown problems, often making someone feel that they are worthless and not important. According to professor of psychology at California State University, Larry Rosen, “Daily overuse of media and technology has a negative effect on the health of all children, preteens and teenagers by making them more prone to anxiety, depression and other psychological disorders.” Teenagers need to understand more about these disorders to realize what they are bringing the future, too. Do they understand that if they don’t teach themselves how to correctly measure their worth that, they could end up in a place so dark they wouldn’t be able to get out of bed?

Ally commented on the realities of this, “With social media comes insecurities. It is so easy to come across a picture of someone who looks better than you, or dresses better than you, or has a better life than you. It’s hard! It makes you jealous and can lead to self-consciousness or even self-hate,” expressed Ally. After hearing stories like this, it begins makes sense why people are criticizing themselves so often. Who can stare at digitally perfected people for hours on end and not start to point out one’s flaws? But, the use of social media is not predicted to ever stop.

“Social media should be used for good,” said Uelmen. “It is a great place to celebrate one another and to promote the accomplishments one has made. My favorite part about social media are the celebration, the smiles, and the happiness. It is why I find myself checking Facebook, Twitter and Instagram multiple times a day.” It is important as social media forums digress, for the common users need to take moments to reflect on their reasons to use social media.

People that have different views and uses of social media all warn future generations of one thing: don’t let social media take over your life. In the words of Ally, one needs to push past all that stuff [social media] and be yourself.