We all have fallen into the trap of scrolling through videos until our thumb hurts, But have you thought about the mental drain you feel after watching these short term videos? I personally feel so drained after watching these videos as they take all my energy with them as I scroll them away. My eyes are addicted to the concept of scrolling but my brain can’t seem to fight it. The more I am on it the more stressed I become. However, the more I avoid it, the stress of being left out also increases. So what’s the solution? I asked teens at Vestal High their opinions.
“Personally, I like social media because there’s a lot of fun things to see and watching people react to stuff can be really funny, but it can also have an impact on someone’s mental health if reading something the wrong way or if they take a joke the wrong way” (Maddie Cramer, VHS Freshman).
“I think social media can be good if it’s for connecting with friends and family. And I think that you can find a lot of different information on it, but that’s also the problem as you can find so much information whether it’s good or bad, and I feel like that information at such a young age can affect someone. It’s also the fact that so many people use it that if you post a video or a picture, someone could hack your account or something just from a picture. But the upside to that is that you can also make new friends and you can get different information from so many people and so there is a negative and a positive to that. But really social media all depends on the contacts in the situation you’re using it and it can be both bad and good just like anything else” (Annie Myers, VHS Freshman).
Social media has many benefits as well as negatives. It all depends on your own self limitation that will allow you to enjoy it rather than spiral into a state of despondency because of its toxic aspects. Looking at it from the current state of the world, it is extremely beneficial for carrying all perspectives of major world events instead of the filtered and censored information we get on the news. That’s why I think it’s where most of the younger generation get their information as news outlets are decreasing in popularity” (Anonymous).
From looking at these responses, you can tell that social media is not all that good, as a 30 second video can’t tell you the whole story. Many on the internet don’t realize that getting worked up over videos online can mentally destroy them. Giving your energy to a conflict or people on the internet can result in drainess and exhaustion.
So how can we still watch things we love on social media and not feel all those things? We should limit our time on the internet and avoid engaging in negative content. You will find what works best for you through trial and error.
