Does social media have a good or bad impact on teens? Social media is horrible, but it can also great at the same time. Yeah, you can catch up with your friends through Snapchat, you can watch funny videos on Tiktok, you can look at memes on Facebook but, that’s only the good side. No one ever talks about the bad things that come with all those social media apps. As a teenage girl, I can say that even though I love social media, it brings me down a lot. It brings down many other people too.

Multiple studies have found a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts. Here are some of the disturbing statistics: 

• 15% of teens say they were the target of online cruelty
• 41% of teens had a negative experience as a result of using a social networking site
• 22% of teens lost their friendship with someone due to actions on social media sites
• 13% had an experienced a problem with their parents because of social media sites.
• Social media is in the top 20 issues leading to suicide.

Social media has some great outcomes, but they are all followed through by something bad. You can see everything other people post which means instead of having fun, you’re watching people have fun through a screen. You can watch funny videos, but that causes you to not want to socialize with the people around you. Other people can text you whether they know you or not, people can make fake accounts and become known as “anonymous,” which means they can say hurtful things to you and you would never know who it is but at the end of the day. That’s why your mental health is going down. Not because you’re “doing too many things,” but because you’re stuck staring at a screen and probably getting put down by people you don’t even know. 

On social media, anonymous people can text you and put you down which can make you want to do bad things. Social media isn’t a good influence. With that being said, social media is one of the top reasons people fight in school, because think about it, if kids weren’t on social media, then they wouldn’t have a way to start rumors or drama outside of school and it would never escalate to the level of fighting if they couldn’t communicate outside of school. 

Social media isn’t always good. Now stop letting other people get in your head and put you down, especially people you don’t even know. Go out, live life and have fun. Stop worrying about what other people are doing. Stop living through a screen.