Social media: it has such a huge influence in today’s generations. “I got my first phone in 5th grade. It was a flip phone. It was a flip phone because my mom didn’t want me to have too much access and to understand the responsibility of having a phone,” sophomore Mary-Elis Perez said. This generation’s parents have shown understanding of how dangerous social media is.   

Although we live in a world where phones have became necessary for children in order for their parents to get in contact with them whenever is needed, they understand the severity of social media and try their best to protect their kids from it until the parent feels like they are at a maturity level where they can handle it. Then again, at some point teenagers would get a hold of social media because in reality they are curious — but that might backfire sooner or later. 

“They body shamed me; I had posted my first picture when I was 13 and some girls on my social media commented harmful things,” junior Angel Munoz said. She had experienced body shaming at such a young age, damaging her self esteem, which is back to my first point of parents trying to protect us from harmful things like that. Munoz said, “It made me very insecure and I wore baggy clothes for a while. I saw myself fall into the cycle of comparing myself to others and it just never stopped.” Many other students in our school feel the same way whether they like to admit it or not. Social media could really damage an individual’s self esteem over the years.

“Some benefits of social media are talking to family members, being there for people that are having problems and taking pictures for memories,” senior Nurnisha Abdulmalik said. When it comes to social media, just like it has its bad side, it also has a good side to it. It gives us the opportunity to be able to take and share pictures of us and our loved ones. We are able to connect with people with a text. A simple “hey, how are you doing?” could make someone’s day so much better.

 Being able to connect with your friends and people around the world and having the opportunity to become friends with them and exploring a different side of that world. The ability to create lifelong friendships on social media. If a person is introverted then social media is a great place for them to make new friends and particularly find a strong sense of support from the “safe” anonymity of social media communities.

Students also use social media for their school work, to highlight school events, hobbies or school activities. Students are able to promote and learn more about their subjects in school using social media, like finding an online teacher that teaches the same subject you need or explaining things a bit differently than your school teacher might help you understand that subject just a bit better. “I sometimes go online and watch Youtube videos of some physics teachers explaining the subject for me,” junior Gabriella Otero said. 

Social media is really what you make it. You can go down a really bad path with it or you can make great friends with it — and even build a career from it. It is truly up to you for the most part. Social media has such a huge impact on a person’s life depending on how they use it.