What makes social media unsafe for teens?

There are plenty of risk factors that come along with the growth of the child. However, they can be avoided. Being connected through social media is a part of growing up for many adolescents. Only a few teenagers have a positive experience on social media as there are many risks involved. Excessive use of social media can be harmful to their mental health. Social media has been designed for the extreme benefit of the users. Too much time spent on social media can be detrimental and linked to many psychological disorders such as envy, less satisfaction with life, and inadequacy. Also, depression is one of the leading causes, and half of the mental illness starts from the age of 14 and goes till the further explosion.

There are many reasons why social media is unsafe for adolescents.

1) Exacerbating loneliness-

Teenagers are so taken by a 'like,' but they do not know that their feelings just for a little bit, and they can't replace loneliness which is coming on their way. Teenagers who often feel lonely use more social media to develop social relations with the ones who are already using social media and can feel more lonely as they are not the real ones, which will help them in the long run. Meaningful relationships are built face to face, and by verbal conversations, they are the last source of satisfaction and personal happiness. The feeling of connectivity Is build by coloring to face interaction and is often lost in the digital world. Teenagers often spend time online talking to people and making fake relations with one who never existed in real life. It can be a problem if all the interaction takes place on one social media, and in case of excessive information, the teens can be engaged in illegal activities. Also a lot of them are into buying instagram followers, hence they keep their account public and due to this strangers can view their profile.

2) Cyberbullying-

Cyberbullying is harmful and disrespectful, which humiliates a person on social media. Violence has been operated digitally. Teens who are victims of cyberbullying are consuming more alcohol and are into drugs and other bad habits. They lack studies and are receiving poor grades. They experience low self-esteem and can suffer from serious health problems. Also, in many cases cyberbullying has resulted In suicide.

3) Exposure to the adult-themed content-

Many sites pop up the ads, which can be inappropriate for the teens and can cause long lasting effects on their brains. Many teens receive explicit texts and emails from the sites, and most of the teens are just forwarding these texts to many. The prefrontal cortex in the teens is not fully developed, so that is why they are unable to make the right decision and cannot judge what is right for themselves, and these all can result in low development of the child. They are wrongly engaged with the wrong people, who can have a devastating effect on their mental health, and teenagers can lose control of themselves by seeing such sites.

4) Erosion of one's privacy and security-

Social media can play with the privacy concerns of adolescents as when a picture is a post. They need to be careful that they are posting their thoughts, feelings, and expressions to the world and sharing with people they might not even know, and nothing can stop their followers from sharing it further and turn their post into an embarrassing meme. As mentioned above the users kept their account public due to their will to increase their followers via unethical way.

Conclusion-

Social media has both pros and cons. As a parent, you need to take care of what your child sees on the screen as it will affect their mental and physical health. With learning comes risk factors, and they are many when it comes to being socially active. Many teens are using social media, so they need to be aware of the danger prevailing, destroying their lives.