Social media is very prominent in the lives of teenagers. From having all communication go through Snapchat, to filling free time scrolling on TikTok, it seems almost unavoidable.
“I feel like I sometimes just don’t really have a life outside of my phone,” Tera Bubach, a junior at MSHS said. Bubach worries that her phone is preventing her from spending time on more important things. “I feel like I can’t get away from it,” she said.
The feeling is shared by another junior Sarah Gentzel. “It feels like there’s nothing else to do other than be on my phone, even though I could be doing better things,” she said. Both Gentzel and Bubach estimate that they spend around six hours a day on their phones.
Bubach would like to find a way to spend less time on her phone. “I should try and prioritize spending time off my phone, maybe powering it off for a few hours,” she said. “Its hard because once you’re so used to it, it just kind of sucks you in.”
Senior Ellen Lowe only uses Snapchat and occasionally Instagram. She aims to keep her screen time under three hours a day. “Instagram is usually deleted on my phone, but when I do download it, I do get caught up in the scrolling. I try to keep it to an hour,” she said.
Despite Lowe’s dislike for social media, she does believe it keeps her up to date on what’s going on. “Student council posts their stuff on Instagram,” Lowe said. “If I didn’t have that social media, I feel like I wouldn’t really know what’s going on in the school.”
Teenagers also tend to rely on Snapchat for a majority of their communications and Instagram for announcing events. “I think that it’s really dumb because some kids aren’t allowed to have social media until they reach a certain age,” Bubach said. “School events should be posted better in the commons or things like that.”
Andrew Slama, a science teacher at MSHS, worries about the lasting effects of social media. “It’s designed to be so addictive, and when put in the hands of children is, to me, more evil than good,” he said.
Slama believes that use of social media can be destructive for teenagers. “They say that comparison is the thief of joy, and I think that really is true when you look at social media,” he said. “I don’t think our minds are set up to handle social media that well, especially from stuff that people have said about self-image and self-worth.”
Gentzel sees the impact of social media on self-worth. “People are saying they look better than others and they’re setting high standards for each other that shouldn’t exist,” she said.
The prominence of social media also takes away the time that kids spend actually being kids. “I don’t think phones are just evil, they’re just so bright and shiny that it sucks up time,” Slama said. “The more time you’re on your phone, the less time you’re just being a kid.”
Bubach believes that social media impacted the way that she grew up. “I feel with social media I grew up faster,” she said. “I knew a lot more things that I shouldn’t have known at a young age instead of learning them when I got older.”
Last week in Australia, a social media ban for everyone under 16 went into effect. The ban bars users under 16 from logging in to their accounts. The goal of this law is to help shield children from the negative effects of social media.
Andrew Slama, a science teacher at MSHS, thinks that if a similar law was enacted in the United States it could be helpful, but he has some reservations. “My gut says it would be a really good thing, but it also kind of infringes upon some personal liberties,” he said.
Lowe believes that a law similar to Australia’s would be positive. “People would not be happy about the decision, but it would benefit them in the long run,” she said.
Slama believes that getting completely rid of social media is not the most tangible answer. He believes that the most important thing would be to figure out how to spend that time better. “If you have an hour a day, that’s great; but if you’re on it 12 hours a day, that’s a problem,” he said. “It’s all about getting that ratio back.”
