Alarming Effects Of Social Media on Youth

In this era of 21st century, where life has changed drastically due to increased technology usage, there we are also facing a lot of technology related challenges. And the most important challenge/issue that we are facing is Social Media and its effects on our youth.

Social media refers to all applications and websites or blogs that enable people around the globe to interconnect through internet using different modes like chatting, sharing content, video call, voice messages, voice calls etc.

Some of the most common and famous social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube, Snapchat among many others.
According to 2020 Global Social media research Summary:

https://www.smartinsights.com

21% of 8-11 year old have a social media profile, increasing to 71% of 12-15 year old. However, YouTube is very popular with both markets, with over 74% of 8-15 year old using this platform.

Here's a snapshot of two of the age groups featured.

According to a survey conducted by:

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-pakistan

there were 76.38 million internet users in Pakistan in January 2020.The number of internet users in Pakistan increased by 11 million (+17%) between 2019 and 2020. There were 37.00 million social Media users in Pakistan in January 2020. The number of social media users in Pakistan increased by 2.4 million (+7.0%) between April 2019 and January 2020.

Today, I will discuss reasons behind increasing social media usage in our youth, its advantages and its alarming disadvantages or negative impacts.

I know that you are also among millions of worried parents/ adults who are facing this social media marketing challenges in upbringing and educating their children.

So, let’s move forward and discuss further to give you a very clear picture of all what is going on and what aspects we need to work on to minimize negative impacts of social media on our youth.

Some major and prominent advantages and positive impacts of social media on our youth are:

1. Close bonding between friends, relatives, peers, teachers and students, professionals, colleagues etc.

2. Cheaper communication irrespective of geographical boundaries.

3. Fun and fresh air that children are getting from social media.

4. Access to the Global Workforce.

5. More options of earning for unemployed youth through social media platforms. E.g. YouTube, freelancing websites, blogging etc.

6. Open access to all sorts of information throughout the globe and many more.

Now coming towards the disadvantages of social media in detail.

One thing that is alarming and we all must know is that all these FREE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS like Facebook, You Tube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat etc. are not actually FREE. They are running at the COST of the future of our youth. These platforms earn mainly from the advertisements they are showing on their pages. And what kind of advertisements they are showing we all know. Mainly our youth is distracted by these advertisements. These ads give them an open invitation to explore what is not relevant to them. Like Sex, nudity, pornography etc.

This free, unlimited and most dangerous material is what many parents are unaware of and don’t pay attention to.

In Pakistan, mainly because of less literacy and knowledge of social media in the parents and adults, our youth is misusing social media by taking advantage of imprudence and negligence of their adults.

Although there are a lot of features in all applications like You Tube, Facebook, browsers etc. to filter out the sort of material your child should be exposed to. These platforms have parental control feature to keep your child restricted and away from any sort of adult material and ads.

Other most common and alarming disadvantages of social media nowadays are:

1. Exposure to sexual content on social media at an early age.

2. Due to early exposure, involvement of our youths in sexual misconducts resulting in early pregnancies and diseases like HIV and early deaths of our young generation.

3. Cyber bullying and Cybercrime on social media networks resulting in suicidal attempts of many children.

4. Depression, anxiety and psychological disturbance in youth.

5. Unhappiness and general dissatisfaction. Sharing pictures and information of personal trips, adventures, dining outs etc. on social media causes inferiority, unthankful attitude and complexion in young generation.

6. Misuse of words and tenses through the use of short forms and abbreviations on social media platforms is leading to poor grades of children in English Language.

7. Wastage of time due to spending unlimited hours on social media.

8. Physical sickness like laziness, fatigue, weak eyesight etc. due to spending overtime in front of screen. Hence resulting in less productivity amongst the youths.

9. Easy access to fake religious videos and material on social media causing irreparable damage to the immature minds of our youth. Thus increasing in number of atheism.

10. Very quick Spread of fake news on social media networks.

11. Social media is decreasing Face to Face communication. Hence resulting in isolation of kids.

Now let me point out some main reasons and causes of increased use of social media platforms among our youth.

1. Cheaper smartphones.

2. Cheaper internet connection and packages.

3. Access to smartphones and internet at an early age. Parents are giving smartphones, tablets to children at a very early age. And giving a reason that it is the necessity and demand of today.

4. Busy parents due to work or other social activities. Thus, causing loneliness in youth and to cope with this loneliness they are using social networking excessively.

5. Zero outdoor and sports activities.

6. Small families with one or two children.

Siblings are the greatest gift for children and nowadays small families are trending, which is resulting in loneliness and isolation of children.

8. Fame of social media platforms and its excessive talking in young children’s peer group and many more.

It’s high time to take IMPACTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA seriously and work together to educate and help each other in resolving these issues and let not our youth get addicted to it and fall prey to it.