In today’s world, everyone is on social media.  Everyone is doing something. Anytime. Anywhere. There’s always something going on. Social media is making people less social.  Social media has harmed people mentally, emotionally and physically. It has also created a false sense of friendships, and online connections, which leads to further stress.

Social media can be addicting and take away family time, and it can also take away personal time as well. People need to focus on themselves instead of focusing on what is happening on social media. People could have trouble sleeping and could at some point develop and start to show signs of depression and/or anxiety. Cyberbullying does exist, it’s not fake. People could make you insecure even if they don’t know who you are and/or what you look like. There is nothing protecting you from it, being on social media means there’s a possibility you could be cyberbullied.  

Being addicted to social media could bring you to a declined work ethic and school performance. Addiction could also have you spending more time on social media instead of doing things like spending time with family, your pets (if you have any) and yourself. Your relationships with people could suffer by spending more time in the virtual world instead of the real world. Addiction can distract students from academic work, and when you have a job or when you’re working, you may lose focus on work-related responsibilities and miss deadlines for assignments for school or work. Lyla Eiselman, an eighth grader says, “Social media is making us less social because everyone is getting addicted to it and even though on Tiktok, every now and then there is a reminder that says ‘Let’s take a break’ and do what you need to do, and sometimes you disregard them and keep on strolling. Sometimes you forget what you need to do like when you need to eat. Sometimes you don’t pay attention to the time, and when you check the time it’s like one in the morning on a school night, and you have to get up early for school.”