Photo by Hayley Gottesman

Sophomore Molly Eisenfeld scrolls through Instagram during free class time.

Millions of people around the world have a phone and use social media to chat with friends or scroll through endless posts. It is also a way to keep up with the news and global events. However, there can be a lot of fake news online along with political or ideological indoctrination, especially on apps such as TikTok.

Phone usage can also lead to an increase in mental health problems such as depression or an increased amount of anxiety. “A 2018 Pew Research Center survey of nearly 750 13- to 17-year-olds found that 45% are online almost constantly and 97% use a social media platform, such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat,” according to Mayo Clinic.

People may argue for social media because it can be a great way to communicate with friends and talk to new people. You can also post about any projects that you’re working on like what I did with my 3D printed Iron Man suit. Check it out on Instagram @zachderman3d. Young people also use social media as their primary source of news information. Whether it be Instagram or Twitter (sorry, X!), people will follow news accounts on these platforms. News accounts such as CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post or New York Times.

I believe that social media is horribly detrimental to the development process of young children and teens because at that young age, they are easily influenced by their surroundings. They also don’t get that in-person communication which hurts their social skills. According to a study mentioned by The Mayo Clinic, “a 2019 study of more than 6,500 12- to 15-year-olds in the U.S. found that those who spent more than three hours a day using social media might be at heightened risk for mental health problems.”

People will also believe everything they read online and trust these so-called “influencers” who have no idea what they’re talking about. This leads to a plethora of fake news that people believe and it leads to them making ill-informed statements or arguments on the basis of false information.

The worst social media platform out there is TikTok due to the endless amount of scrolling of short-form media. Short-form content like TikTok or Instagram reels hurts our attention span and we can only focus for a few minutes at a time. TikTok is another platform where young people trust these “influencers” for media coverage and wind up becoming indoctrinated into their crazy political beliefs.

The next generation of kids that we’ll see entering the school are what some have deemed “iPad kids.” These are children who have grown up completely with the aid of technology without the parent stepping in. These kids usually grow up to have inept social skills and a damaged developmental process. We need to encourage young children to go outside or play with friends, rather than to sit inside on an iPad watching brain rot on YouTube Kids. “What people need to remember is the more time that kids are on screen, that means there’s less time that they’re getting a lot of things that we know are incredibly important for child development, including interaction with adults, sleep, opportunities to read and conversations that are more interactive with nonverbal cues,” chief science officer for the American Psychological Association Mitch Prinstein said in an NBC news article.

As bad as phones are for our youth, the reality is that we are constantly advancing in the digital age to the point where we are all reliant on technology. This fact is hurting our youth, their social skills and their development process. It is an important idea to encourage real-world interactions rather than digital ones.