Teens everywhere face the same problem. This problem is technology and the social media apps that branch off from it. Granted, not every teen has problems when it comes to media but there are still a good amount that have a constant struggle with it. Some examples of these problems/struggles are as follows: depression, little to no sleep, gain in weight, bad manners and even lack of motivation. All of these examples are why the U.S is going through a mental health crisis.
Everyday when I look around there are always groups of people on their phones or other devices. I personally think it’s just sad to never see kids running around and having fun or interacting with each other. Children nowadays aren’t having much fun like they used to. My parents would always tell my siblings and I about the good old days. They would talk about kids being kids and how much fun it was staying outside. Kids weren’t ever inside and weren’t ever on phones or computers. Because of the development of technology and the other apps that branch off from it, children are depressed and always inside.
Technology has a big impact on the younger generations. Some of the examples of these impacts are ,once more, depression, anxiety, maturing too quickly, hackings, and in most cases self shaming. The one problem that is from the media is children shaming others as well as themselves. I see this problem everywhere. There are children out there that don’t have Stanley’s, and just because they don’t, they get picked on. It’s even more sad when children develop depression and other health disorders because of how they view themselves or how others veiw them. For example, children that are a bit rounder than others get down in the dumps and want to be smaller.
Do you know what happens when a kid feels bad and doesn’t think rationally? They either become depressed or get to a point where they harm themselves. Personally, I think that if you aren’t happy with what you look like or how you live, then you need to do something about it. Self harm isn’t the best way to make the bad thoughts go away, in fact they make them worse. Hurting yourself doesn’t solve anything, it actually makes it worse. I was always told that you shouldn’t wish for something, and instead, you should work for it. This saying is very important to me and others because downing yourself about something that is fixable is flat out dumb. If you feel a certain way and you don’t like it then get up and fix it.
Now, earlier I said about how kids nowadays are growing up “too fast”, what I mean by this is children are getting expensive phones that are probably better than their parents around the grades 3rd through 12th. It’s just crazy to see a child who is irresponsible having an expensive phone. There are also little 9 year olds wearing crop tops and short shorts. That there is just setting your child up for failure and even trafficking. As bad as it sounds there are several children being taken advantage of and grabbed from their families. It’s sad and wrong.
Branching off from this topic is how technology can also play a role in the problem of child abductions. Media can come in many forms but the one that I was thinking about was social media. The problem with social media is that there can be many ways for a trafficker to hide behind a screen and con kids into “meeting up” with them. When you’re only talking to a person over the phone you don’t truly know if they are who they say they are. The small percentage of children who notice this, shut it all down, but there is still a good percentage of kids who fall into the trap. If it wasn’t for social media, we wouldn’t have to fear for our kids and the generations to come. I don’t really like talking about this topic but I want to stress to everyone that people should always, and I mean always pay attention to your surroundings and the people you meet. You never know when something just as terrible can impact you.
