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Effects of Social Media on Children

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Social media has become a dynamic and transformative force, fundamentally changing how younger people communicate, express themselves, and consume content. This digital space has grown into a lively cultural ecosystem, driving technological innovation and reshaping business and social interactions. At its heart, social media serves as a powerful tool for connectivity, fostering unprecedented levels of global communication and collaboration.

Despite its many advantages, social media comes with its own set of complexities and challenges. A major concern is its impact on the impressionable minds of young users. This article will explore the various effects of social media on children.

The Adverse Impact of Social Media on Children

A common view is that social media does more harm than good for children. So, how exactly does social media affect kids? Here are some of the negative impacts it can have on them:

  1. Social Media Addiction: The most well-known downside of social media is the addiction it creates. Constantly checking the news feed of the different social media sites becomes an addictive habit. Experts think that some features such as ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ activate the reward centre in the brain. This reward circuitry is highly sensitive during adolescence and may partly explain why teenagers are more into social media than adults. These features further influence our moods. Being social creatures, we value interaction and connection, both of which determine how we think of ourselves. This drives a lot of our behaviour on a day-to-day basis, which is centred around social media.
  2. Productivity Drain and Academic Consequesnses: Youngsters addicted to social media end up spending hours, each day, watching videos, photos, and other content posted in the accounts they follow. This addiction disrupts other activities, such as school work, sports, study, and other productive routines. They end up wasting a substantial amount of time, every day, resulting in poor grades in school. Some heavy users of social media admit to checking their feeds as many as 100 times a day, and sometimes, during school hours too. Some of the kids also realise that they are wasting a lot of time on social media, which affects their mood negatively. It also builds in them a defeatist attitude.
  3. Detrimental Effects on Mental Health: Psychologists have long observed the bad effects of social media on the mental health of children. One finding suggests that children spending more than three hours a day on social media are twice as likely to suffer from poor mental health. Their immersion in a virtual world delays their emotional and social development. The effects on teens are much stronger. One report by the IZA Institute of Labour Economics suggests that spending only an hour a day on social media can make a teen miserable. It could be due to the influence of social comparisons, cyberbullying, and decreased person-to-person interactions.
  4. Risky Behavior and Dangerous Trends: Selfies turned into the most popular thing with the advent of camera phones. Taking selfies every hour and posting it on social media is strongly linked to narcissism, and can trigger obsessions with one’s looks. Some selfie addicts have been known to do dangerous things, such as scale skyscrapers, pose with wild animals or weapons, or stand close to moving vehicles, such as trains to get a “cool” selfie, which has ended fatally. Risky behaviour is also observed in teens, as they participate in mass social media challenges that involve engaging in absurd or dangerous activities while filming themselves.