#SchoolLyfe : Does Social Media Really Change Teenagers?

Nowadays, teenagers and social medias are two inseparable things. Teenagers often feel that they are nothing without social media as if they can not live without them. From the moment they wake up until they are about to sleep, they always update their status on social media. As you may have noticed on your friends, your siblings or even your teenage children or students, their social media account never get offline. Also this generation of teenagers choose to use social media to interact rather than to truly make conversation in real life. Besides social media today is used as entertainment media by teenagers in the same time. As the result there is a change in function of social media usage. We can see that many of social media developers now not only focusing in making application just to chit chat but also having entartainment element. Back in the time social media used as a platform to connect with someone through the internet. Few years ago social medias were used only as secondary option to do social interactions. While today teenagers use it as the main thing to socialize. Frankly, nowadays teenagers choose to subtitute their social intercourse in real life with their social media usage. Albert Einstein once said,”I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” Maybe what Albert Einstein once feared had come real. We can see the proof of it in our daily life easily. When we visit a coffee shop downtown for example, we will see a group of teenagers hanging out in their school uniform, but instead of talking to each other they choose to surf on the social medias. Or, when we go to a music concert, it is easy to find teenagers with their phone sticking on their hand and do live streaming on their social media instead of enjoying the show. So I guess, now technology has surpassed our human interaction and maybe soon we will stop seeing each other. For example, today teenagers do not need to waste time to go to their friends’ house just for sharing secrets they can easily do it through their gadgets while doing something else. In addition teenagers today are more individualist as a result of lacking of social skill. From those two examples mentioned before we can conclude that social media usage causes the changes of behavior among teenagers. They may not aware of it yet, but actually they can feel the urges to always stick with it anytime anywhere. Sometimes it may be a symptom of social media addiction. Since teenagers are still unstable, parents play a major role here. In a family parents play a role as a leader, which means parents have the rights to take control over their teenager children. So in my opinion parents should limit their teenage childrens’ social media usage because using social media too much makes teeenagers feel less confident about themselves, it makes teenagers more narcissist and in some case it leads to addiction.

Firstly, using social media too much makes teenagers feel less confident. As I already mention in the beginning, social media usage among teenagers gives some different effects. Why is it working like that? Because teenagers have different personality and habit. In short there are types of teenagers as social media users. Roughly, I divide them in two groups, the influencers and the watchers. The influencers are a bunch of teenagers who are seen as social media primadona.They have many friends both in social media and real life. Some of them stock their social media timeline with valuable post but some other use their timelines to brag about their life. From what I had observed most of the influencers are young bloggers, athletes, musicians, artists and teenagers with other skill. Meanwhile the watchers are just a bunch of teenagers who are spending their time in social media just to watch other peoples’ life. Unlike the influencers who are actively update their timelines, the watchers are the passive users of social media. The watchers are the most common type found in any kind of social medias. In this paragraph I am going to talk about the effect that happen to the watchers first. Since most of them are the passive type, insecurities are not something strange to them. Watching other peoples’ life from social media and not being able to do anything about that, are those teenagers able to feel confident about it? Teenagers often feel jealous and pity of themselves. All they can do is just comparing their life with other teenagers’ life. But actually, not all teenagers feel insecure and unconfident because of the reasons stated before. In order to make teenagers feel insecure sometimes other teenagers occasionally bully them. There is a chance for cyberbullying among teenagers in social media that causes such self-pity feeling. When teenagers feel unconfident or insecure as the result of bullying, they will start to feel pity of themselves. And that will cause them to lose their self esteem. In this era cyberbullying is a common thing and it is easy to find cases of cyber bulliyng that cause teenagers to have poor judgement of themselves. Unstable emotion that teenagers bearing with is one of the cause for cyber bullying, in order to cover their insecurities they insult other teenagers through social media so they could feel better. I often see teenagers insult their friend in social media using sarcasms because they act wrong. But in any case bullying is wrong, the victim may lose their self-esteem and have trust issue. Those kinds of feelings unconsciously harm teenagers psychologically. It may cause them to feel stressed and even loss of motivation to do better in the future.

Secondly; using social media too much makes teenagers narcissist. Unlike the previous problem teenagers faced as the side effect of social media usage this point makes teenagers feel the otherwise. In this situation using social media makes teenagers overly confident about themselves or in other word, is narcisst. Some people often compare narcissist with bully, meanwhile both are two different things. That is because teenagers with narcism often show dominance in social interaction. When there is an imbalance of dominance in social interaction, people will judge it as bullying. And that lead to a negative interpretation of narcism. Actually narcism is not negative trait, but some people find it annoying. So they make it sound negative. Vice versa to the insecurity problem, narcism makes teenagers love to overexpose themselves to public and it makes them satisfied. According to a psychology blog, narcism is an excessive self love. Teenagers with narcism will do whatever it takes to be liked and praised by everyone. Having lots of followers in social media seems to be their goal. The more audience they get the happier they feel about it. And the more feedback they get the more they feel confident. But why do many people find this behavior annoying? It is because to gain their followers’ attention, teenagers often do something inappropriate. For example, doing something provocative and posting it to their social media. Teenagers like to make sensational thing, so they can easily get attention. Like for example, post something sensitive that connected to race, religious even nationalism issue. Few weeks ago, one of teenage social media influencers, Saaih Halilintar, uploaded a video in his instagram story that went viral in one night. In the video he uploaded last April, he tore a hundred thousand rupiah bill for his self-satisfaction. Many of his followers thought it was a kind of insult to Indonesian currency, also they think it would lead his teenage followers to copy his demeanor. In this case narcism drove Saaih to wrong behavior. This 16 years old boy has been used as an example of harm that social media does to teenagers for the past month. Beside Saaih, it is easy to find a lot of other teenagers who share ‘bad’ vibes to their followers in social media only for self satisfaction. We must be familiar with another influencer named Karin Novilda or commonly known as Awkarin. She is known by public for her controversial posts on instagram. She started her instagram debut when she was 16 years old, many teenagers choose her as a role model while many people think otherwise. Karin often posts vulgar picture and say impolite words in many of her videos she uploaded online. Many parents think that she is a narcissist. As you can see on the instagram account of this 20 years old woman, she usually brags about her improvidence lifestyle or her love life. As soon as she got her ID three years ago, she went to a bar with her boyfriend and drank alcohol. But this did not stop her fans to worship her. From what I learn from many interview she had in many online magazine, she does not feel bothered acted like that. Despite she feels very confident for posting sensitive posts as long as she still get likes on both instagram and youtube.

Thirdly using social media too much lead to addiction. Teenagers spend irrational time on social media. Since social media nowadays used by teenagers as entertainment media, they use it in almost irrationable amount of time. Teenagers do not realize that their behavior is a time bomb. The longer they use it, the least they want to get seperated from it. They always stick with their phone from the moment they wake up until they are about to sleep, connected to their social media. Teenagers sometimes feel isolated when they are not always on their social media. So, they will do anything to always be with their phone connected to internet. For them social media is the most important thing in their life and they think it helps them a lot. But what those teenagers are actually doing on social media sometimes make no sense. One time they use it to post something in their timeline but at the other time they use it to cheat during exams. At my former school, in 2017 final exam of eight grade was rescheduled because there was a class using an online chat room to discuss during exam. According to what BBC News reported in 2014, approximately teenagers spent up to seven hours a day on social media. Meanwhile, the number of hours that scientist recommended is just three until four hours a day. The excessive usage of social media may lead teenagers to an addiction. Some experts in psychology said that internet addiction or specifically social media addiction form a similar damage as the drug addiction does to the victim. Addiction happen when someone being so attached to something, they will think can not live with it. Teenagers are easy prey for social media addiction. Since they are still looking for their identity, teenagers use social media to discover the world and themselves, but sometimes the time they spent is irrational. The symptoms of social media addiction in teenagers are easy to spot yet easy to miss. Sometimes parents and teachers are not aware of this problem caused by social media usage of their teenagers. But when they finally notice it, sometimes it is too late. One of the easiest symptom to recognize is, teenagers feel worried everytime they disconnect with their social media account. In the worst case of social media addiction, teenagers have to deal with a rehab session which costs a lot and it may interupt their school schedule.

However there are some opposing ideas to the statements I stated before. Firstly, social media helps teenagers socializing. At the beginning of this essay I write it as if social media do a lot of harm to teenagers especially in the way social media existence change teenagers social manners. But actually there are few benefits of social media usage among teenagers. Long before social media and internet were invented, to communicate in real time is hard to do especially when you and someone you are intended to communicate with is away. But, the availability of internet and social media changes the circumstance it is now handy to do so. With social media teenagers can easily connect with their friends everywhere even across the country. There are no more needs to wait weeks until their letter recieved by their friend abroad. As I barely mentioned in the pro argument paragraph, teenagers have different personalities that is why social media form different effects due to its usage among teenagers. Let’s say of the introverts, for them doing social interaction seems to drain their energy, for instance it is not their nature to get involved in social interaction. So social medias’ existence help teenagers to communicate better with other. Because by using social media, teenagers are able to perform socially without seeing each other face to face. According to a psychology research introversion is a condition where someone tend to be more reserved, this condition often troubles teenagers in socializing. But now with social media they no longer have to deal with anxiety when it comes the time to talk with someone. Also, social media may help parents to monitor their teenage childrens’ activity, where they go to and with whom they go with. Now there is an application called Zenly, which used as both real time GPS and social media, or it commonly known as Social Map. Parents can install that app in their phone so parents will be able to check their teenage children. Beside it makes easy for teenagers and parents to know each others’ position, there are other social media that will help teenagers with their academic life. In Indonesia now there is a new website called Pinisi School, many state schools use that application to connect their students and their teacher. By using it, teachers can easily share a lesson thread or even create an online quizlet. Another example, they can use social media like skype to interacat with their teacher. When teenagers miss a class or need an additional lesson from their teacher but they can not make it to meet in person with their teachers, they can easily call the teachers and have a video call.

Secondly, social media helps teenagers find their identity. Since social media has the benefit of connecting people around the world, it helps teenagers to broaden their knowledge. Social media now has been the form of hands on source of information. Sometimes new information spread faster and wider in social media. Within the changes of social media function, teenagers now can learn new things through it. In addition to the entertainment function of social media, teenagers use social media to look for inspirations or new ideas. There are now couples of new social media made to connect people with similar interest. From that social medias teenagers can easily connect with an artist or any other person with different interest. Farther it will expand teenagers’ mind and perspective. The existence of Youtube for example, the biggest online video sharing social media we have until now, had helped many teenagers learn thing through it. Lots of creative tutorials and even academical purpose videos are available there, teenagers can access them with only a simple click. Many youtubers now share videos about choosing the right academic and career path, which is very helpful for teenagers. Also teenagers can find their interest and path for their further education through other social media, for example there is now Youth Manual. By using that social media teenagers will be asked some questions and given free counseling for their future. This application is very helpful since not every teenagers receive a counseling sesssion at their school.

But those oppposing ideas are not totally correct. Social media connect teenagers with everyone. But even if they think it is the good side of social media , there lies a darker side of social media if they look deeper. Joining a social media is like standing in grass field, everyone can see you cleary because there is no barrier between you and the rest of the social media users. That means teenagers can see everything and connected with everyone. It makes teenagers able to find unsuitable content or even be a victim of scam. That is why social media is dangerous for teenagers. Lot of teenagers being kidnapped because they are manipulated by strangers they meet in social media. You may still remember that few years ago there were many cases of child trafficking caused by social media usage. Most of the doers were adults with goals to fullfill their sexual desire or worse, they wanted to kidnap teenagers to sell their organs to the black market. Beside being lured by strangers they met online, teenagers could be manipulated by content that is unsuitable for them. For example, in 2012 there was a case of social media usage that led to a suicide of teenager. Tallulah Wilson, was a 15 years old talented dancer from West Hamstead, her parents were divorced and she lived with her mom and sister. She survived a depression from her parents divorce and her grandmothers’ death. In order to overcome her problem, she drown herself in her social media account, she used it to see selfharming and suicide content. She created an alter ego of a drug addictive girl in tumblr. According to Wikipedia alter ego is a second self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. A person who has an alter ego is said to lead a double life. In this case Tallulah acted as a selfharming “cocaine-snorting” drinker in her Tumblr account which has 18,000 followers while in real life she is a depressed teenager. When her mother found out, she took all Tallulahs’ internet access, that depressed her more. She even tried to harm herself at school by cutting her hands, but the school staff found her and took her to the school clinic. In middle of October 2012, Talullah was driven to her dancing class she did not attend by her grandfather. Instead of attending the class, she ended up herlife by throwing herself to the train and her dead body found at St Pancras station. Her suicide had risen the awarness of social media toxic side, also her mother encouraged other parents to always monitor their teenage children social media usage. But sadly the case of social media misuse is repeating itself, in 2017 #bluewhalechallenge gone viral through social media Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. Teenagers who signed for the challenge will be given tasks that connected with selfharming and extreme activities for two months before they were commanded by someone they called ‘the curator’ to take their life. The challenge spread like a virus and many teenagers around the world become a victim of mass suicide which is masterminded by a bunch of teenagers in Russia. This case is the worse event that has ever happened caused by social media.

In order to reduce the harm of social media on teenagers I come up with some solutions. Firstly, teenagers should be aware of the problem itself. In this era teenagers demanded to be wiser in many aspect, especially social media which they use all the time. Teenagers need to understand how social media usage do harm to themselves. If teenagers act wisely in using social media, negative effects that were mentioned before would not happen to them. There are some social medias which has age restriction before they can sign up. That feature may help teenagers to avoid them from accessing unsuitable content. Even if the age restriction feature still can be tricked by changing the birthday when they are about to sign up, teenagers should understand that it will leads to a risk. But if they already joined the social media, they should be ready to filter themselves from inappropriate content in it. Teenagers should be smart in choosing which content is suitable and which is not. Those things are applied in case they are about to post something in social media. They must think over whether is it appropriate or not, does it offend for somebody or not, and many other things to be considered of before uploading something online. Secondly, beside the teenagers themselves, parents should be aware of this issues as well. Parents are the leader of the family, it means they have the right to take control over their children. In this case parents have the right to cut their teenage children social media access. Today some teenagers are still not able to manage their social media usage, that is why parents role is needed here. Parents should guide their teenage children and educate them about social media negative side. They should learn to limit their teenage children social media usage and be more affectionate to their kids. So in the future their teenage children will be the wise and smart users of social media.

In conclusion, social media does change teenagers, especially their psychology. The effect that social media causes to teenagers vary, it depends on the personality of the teenagers. In this essay I divide the consequences into three main negative effects social media done to teenagers. Which are insecurity, narcism and addiction. Actually there are a lot more impacts that social media done to teenagers, but those three effects are the most common found. Those effects are caused because teenagers influenced by wrong role model, provoked by inappropriate content and recieve no parental guidance. The side effect of social media can be prevented indeed, if the teenagers are aware of it. But since teenagers are rebelious and unstable, they still can not use social media wisely and it will be hard for them to manage their social media usage. In fact social media is a good source of information and a great place to learn new things. But, if it does not used wisely there are more harm than goods to come. Most of the social media misuse case above happened because of teenagers are lack of parental guidance. So that means parents role is needed here, not only to limit their teenage children social media usages but also to educate them about how to be a good users of social media. May the death case of Tallulah Wilson and blue whale challenge rise parents’ awareness about how social media affecting their teenage children psychology. And help both parents and teenagers to prevent those things to happen again

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