Mini Literature Review
Effects of social media on the youth today
Technology today has significantly advanced in various fields such as; medicine, business, transport, among other fields of our day to day lives. However, the field of communication could be viewed as one of the heavily impacted fields by modern technology. Mobile phones and computer networks have facilitated easy communication approaches across the world, significantly contributing to the concept of globalization. This has been advanced even further by the social media whose advent permanently changed the way we understood and knew communication. Social media usage has been utilized for various aspects such as information dissemination as well as interaction purposes between friends and the world at large. Among the most popular platforms that the youth use include; Instagram, where trends and lifestyles are shared, WhatsApp where instant messaging and image sharing is facilitated, Twitter for news updates, among other social media platforms. The biggest population group that has been identified to be the biggest users of social media are the youth who contribute to more than half of the total social media users (Abi-Jaoude, Naylor & Pignatiello, 2020). As a result, social media has been identified to play a huge role in influencing the lives of these youths both directly in the physical and indirectly, for instance, in psychological aspects.
Literature Review
Various authors have presented their views on social media usage by the youth, with some of these ideas having a particular resemblance, while others have been identified to have a disparity of thought. According to Anderson and Jeng, “YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat are the most popular online platforms among teens. Fully 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45% say they are online ‘almost constantly” (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). This shows that it is almost correct to infer that all teenagers have access to a smartphone and connectivity to the world around them. As a result, the current teenage generation obtains their ideas and beliefs from the online platform, based on the kind of interactions that they are exposed to. There are various reasons which these teenagers attribute to the frequent use of social media, including; connecting with friends and family, news and current events, fashion trends, and lifestyle, among other reasons. Despite the frequent social media usage amongst the group, there are no clear findings on the effects of social media usage amongst the members of this population group. Statistical research findings indicate that; 45% of the youth believe that social media usage has had no effect on their lives, 31% believe that social media has had a positive impact on their lives whole the remaining 24% describe the effects to be negative (Anderson & Jiang, 2018).
However, Ahn has a different perspective citing that social media has significantly affected the youth in various aspects of their lives, such as; privacy, youth safety, psychological well‐being, and educational achievement (Ahn, 2011). The author observes that teenagers and the youth today are spending a significant amount of their time on the online platform, which they could have used to undertake other constructive activities. The study has a link between the prevalence of declined performance in academic activities and heavy social media usage. Students who are frequently on their phones reserve little time to study or take part in other personal wellbeing building activities, thus affecting their overall life performance. The psychological well-being of youths is also affected by factors such as peer pressure. With social media platforms being used by people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, users form low-income backgrounds may feel less privileged or likable. With the teenagers in a stage of identity against confusion in their developmental stages, they may end up experiencing negative psychological effects of insufficiency and reduced self-esteem as they are not able to meet the living standards and lifestyles displayed by other social media users. Online bullying has also been associated with social media usage, where some youths who have fallen victim to this form of bullying have ended up committing suicide in worst cases. Social media is, therefore, an aspect of the youth’s lives today that has a profound effect on their lives and perception of the society around them.
Another research was conducted in Kenya on the effects of social media usage among the youth at the University of Nairobi. The study was aimed at identifying the effects that social media has on behavior. From the study findings, it was identified that social media usage among the youth and teenagers significantly contributed towards the development of negative behavior such as drug and substance abuse (Njoroge, 2013). Social media usage was also attributed to the weakening social and moral values and ties between the youth, teenagers, and their immediate contacts i.e., friends and family. For instance, when faced with a problem, social media users are twice as likely to look for a solution on the online platforms rather than consult with their immediate family or other people in their lives. Direct communication between the youth and other heavy social media users with people in the real world setting was also identified to be significantly affected (Njoroge, 2013). Conversations are dying a slow death and being gradually replaced by online chats and responses.
Conclusion
From the above literature review and analysis, I have come to realize that social media has a bigger influence on the lives of the youths today than I perceived initially. More than 95% of the total youth population has been identified to have access to social media platforms. With such a big outreach, social media can now be considered as a lifestyle that the youth today are living. Most of their lively activities are centered on the social media platforms and the prevailing trends on these sites.
Issues such as addiction, online bullying, business transactions, among other activities, are all conducted on social media platforms by the youth. Many authors and social media experts have identified that social media is a big influence on the lives of the youths today, and measures should, therefore, be put in place to ensure that the youths are able to maintain a balance between constructive and destructive social media usage.
References
Njoroge, R. I. T. A. (2013). Impacts of social media among the youth on behavior change: a case study of University students in selected universities in Nairobi, Kenya. Unpublished Masters Thesis.
Anderson, M., & Jiang, J. (2018). Teens, social media & technology 2018. Pew Research Center, 31, 2018.
Ahn, J. (2011). The effect of social network sites on adolescents’ social and academic development: Current theories and controversies. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(8), 1435-1445.
Abi-Jaoude, E., Naylor, K. T., & Pignatiello, A. (2020). Smartphones, social media use and youth mental health. CMAJ, 192(6), E136-E141.