Today most if not all students have some form of social media weather that be YouTube, Instagram, or Snapchat. Now they are being encouraged to uninstall them but why? It could be due to distractions, mental health, or even an unhealthy addiction. All I have said above can negatively impact a student’s grade and attendance in school and even life outside of school.
The reason why students are being encouraged to uninstall social media is due to grades falling for students, students being distracted, possibly being disruptive to the entire class. Jonatan Diaz teaches AP psychology, psychology, and sociology to students. When I asked him why he would personally encourage students to uninstall social media he said, “turning off social media so students can focus on more important responsibilities”.
Whether that be in school or everyday life it can be true that students can get addicted to social media to the point where they neglect other aspects of life, like ironically enough their social life. Jonatan Diaz says, “Students would talk to each other more and make more personal connections”. So, while it is called social media it can still harm student’s social skills at very critical years during their development. Like talking face to face with another peer, continuing a conversation or ending one due to a very common action of people just leaving in the middle of conversation. The reason why addiction to social media may happen is because of how boring school can get for them so to stimulate their brains they can go onto YouTube, Instagram, or Snapchat. All apps can provide near unlimited entertainment and such apps with Instagram or TikTok with their short form content which can easily be scrolled. They provide lots of stimulation within a minute or more. It can be easy to see why people, especially students, can get addicted. Social media can also harm students’ mental health. Jonatan Diaz says, “Snapchat can be dangerous to have something inappropriate screenshotted”. This is a sad reality for many students since they are afraid that they just gravely messed up and since they believe it is their fault they become afraid to tell others, even their parents. This could lead to years of being manipulated with fear of their sensitive pictures being released, so this could lead to them getting depression thinking there is no way out of their situation. This can be prevented by making sure to teach children and students to stay safe online and to tell them about how dangerous a single photo can be.
