Social media has changed the world and provides many benefits. It allows people to advertise, enjoy themselves, chat with friends and even, in emergencies, let people know about a missing person or something else along those lines. However, opposed to all of the benefits that social media brings to the world, it also has many downsides. Social media can pull kids of all ages away from activity, encourage bullying and give some people a certain ego or expectation.

According to Pew Research Center, teens spend an average of nine hours a day in front of a screen and a big part of that time is spent on social media. Nevertheless, no matter what, that adds up to a lot of time staring at a screen for one day.

The big aspect of social media that is frowned upon is the effect it has on teenagers across the country. Social media can discourage kids and make teens think they have to live up to a certain standard instead of being themselves. Senior Starlin Bognar believes that social media creates a certain expectation for people and can have many negative benefits.

“I think that social media sets standards that people think they need to live up to,” Bognar said. “Plus, whatever people see on the internet they think it’s true.”

One of the biggest downfall of social media is cyberbullying. People are quick to judge and stir up conflict with others which causes self-confidence issues. Cyberbullying has also lead to a number of suicides all over the world.

“It makes people more self-conscious because people overthink and then they second guess what they are posting,” freshman Garrett Ray said.

Social media has been connected to negative stigma in recent years and it is said that it is bringing more harm than good. If everyone is more supportive of one another, that stigma can be reversed and bring social media back to the light-hearted, fun environment it used to contain.