With the creation of MySpace in 2003, social media has changed the way we interact with each other and receive messages from the media. Social media has appealed especially to adolescents and young adults, as it makes communication easy and fun. While social media aims to have a beneficial impact on society by connecting people, messages on these platforms can be harmful, especially to young people. In a survey we conducted among 100 college-aged young people, 77% percent use social media during class, 36% percent feel some sort of anxiety when they can’t use their phones for a prolonged amount of time, and 72% use social media more than twenty times a day. From this data, we concluded that social media can be distracting, addictive, and have harmful effects on mental health. Social media has also been a hotspot for dangers such as sexual harassment online and the ever more prominent cyberbullying. Sexual harassment, cyberbullying, and slut shaming have continued to negatively impact today’s younger generation and have been contributing factors to teenagers’ decreasing self-confidence and security. Young people can also suffer from mental and physical harm due to the unrealistic beauty standards portrayed by public figures in the media.

Because social media takes such a toll on young people’s mental state, it becomes difficult to separate the media from reality. Ironically, as social media has become more available, genuine human relationships have seemed to decrease. In this generation, modern dating has gone from something once valued to what can now be referred to as “a hookup culture.” With images of women broadcasted throughout social media, representing unattainable beauty standards, men seem to become tunnel visioned by this and have taken advantage of the way in which society portrays women as objects rather than human beings. Over the years, the competition for having the “cutest” Instagram with “bae” has significantly increased rather than just worshiping that time with a loved one outside the media. There’s so much pressure that comes with relationships nowadays, including how many times you have to text or snapchat the person you like, or deciding how long to wait between each response so you don’t seem too “clingy” and obsessive. Social media today has turned the human connection from something that should come naturally to a never ending set of mind games. While social media has some negative aspects, there are a lot of positive aspects as well. Social media has benefitted many people by enhancing communication, sending out major alerts which have saved lives, allowed people to keep up with events live as they are happening. Social media sites such as Facebook have kept people in touch with one another who are thousands of miles apart. Whether or not you believe social media is harmful to young people, it is important to realize that this community online has an increasing effect on the way we interact with one another and perceive ourselves.