By Amelie Francisco
We’ve all been told time and time again how bad social media is. People think that it is ruining teenagers and causing severe mental health problems. Despite what some people want us to believe, social media actually has many positive impacts on us and our society. Like everything else in the world social media has it’s pros and cons and therefore shockingly, it is not just the devil reincarnate.
Social media can make it a lot easier to make friends. Social media has given people who experience social anxiety, and even those who don’t, a much easier way to meet people and make friends. People who feel like outcasts in their real-life situations can find people who they relate to on social media. Social media platforms make it super easy to find people with similar interests and ideas and often finding people who you can relate to online can make you more confident in real life. Social media also makes it easier to stay in touch with the people that you meet in real life. If you don’t see a friend very often their social media feed is an easy way to connect with them. Even if you can’t see them, social media allows you to easily keep that connection.
Social media connects people across the world. It brings the world together in a way that wouldn’t be possible without it. It can make the world seem smaller, through social media you can connect with people easily who live on an entirely different continent. You learn about the world and different cultures through platforms like Instagram. Social media is creating a culture of communication and connection. When we have a connection to people outside of our own community it can lead to higher levels of empathy for the rest of the world. For example, if you make a friend in another country and then a terrorist attack takes place near their home town it makes you care more deeply about the situation than if you had no connection to that place in the world. Or if you live in Canada and you have online friends in Australia, you can see the real-life effects of the devastating fires happening there. When people can’t travel, often other places in the world can seem almost mythical and we have lower levels of empathy for what happens in them. Through social media, you can make connections with the rest of the world and it brings us all closer together.
Social media can also create opportunity for entrepreneurs and freelancers. Using social
media can launch a business or give an aspiring writer, artist, or photographer a platform to express themselves and get discovered so they can pursue their dreams. Social media gives people an opportunity to be creative and to get out of their comfort zone. Certain platforms encourage creativity and they give us an excuse to be creative. For example, the popular app Tik Tok makes it easy for people to make videos of anything they want and get discovered. Comedians, artists, and actors can easily get popular on apps like Tik Tok or Youtube. Social media encourages teens to pursue their dreams because they make them far more attainable.
Social media makes it easy for us to explore and discover new interests, from music to art to travelling, there really is something for everyone on at least one of the many platforms that exist in the online world. Social media encourages individuality, diversity, and creativity. Anyone can find a place they belong online. Teenagers are always looking for someone to relate to and social media makes it so much easier for them to figure out who they are. Social media profiles are an amazing way to showcase who you are as a person. Artists can showcase their art, musicians can show off their music, environmentalists can spread awareness about the climate crisis, and travellers can share the trips they’ve experienced. You can make your social media platforms whatever you want them to be.
As well as connecting us to people who are similar to us we are also connected to people who are different from us which can cause us to open our minds and become more accepting of other people and ideas. Without the internet or social media, kids, especially in small towns, are exposed to very limited views and it can be difficult for them to figure out their own opinions without automatically adopting the views of their parents and neighbours. Social media exposes everyone to the other side of the story. We get to know how real issues affect real people and suddenly those issues aren’t just hypothetical anymore. People can create and discover their own opinions and ideas much more easily now because of social media. We are exposed to so much more now that we have social media, and the constant stream of information is not just nonsense. Without social media, many of us would be woefully unaware of the issues facing the world today. Many of us learn so much about what is happening in the world through social media. As well as learning about it, social media also gives us a platform to spread awareness about whatever we want. Social media is creating a new generation of informed and passionate activists for many issues including the environment, human rights, and social justice issues.
Social media has created a world full of possibilities for teenagers today but for some reason, all we hear about is how terrible it is simply because we are growing up in a different way than the generations before us. Social media creates so much opportunity for those who take advantage of it. Social media can make so many things easier like socializing, or building a business, or just creating content, social media allows us to express ourselves and get creative in many ways we couldn’t before its existence. On top of allowing us a platform to socialize and be creative, it allows us to learn about the rest of the world in an easy and accessible way. It can build up our desire to travel, volunteer, or simply learn more about the world we live in. Social media is not the devil. Yes, it has its problems but so does literally everything else. It scares some people, especially the older generation, simply because it is so different from how they grew up but social media offers so much and we should definitely be taking advantage of it.
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