We live in a close world in which social media connects us constantly, but how is it affecting the children of our future and the communication between one another…
Social media has hit the world by storm in recent years, with its ever-growing technology that connects the world with every inch of detail that an individual decides to share with us all, but is it developing too fast for some of us?
The youth for example, the future generation of our planet are very much engaged with keeping up online and having the most up to date post or ‘selfie’ for that matter on Instagram that the person is praying to reach at least 100 likes for. But it is, a fact that the younger generation today are much more heavily involved with social media than adults, but there’s a line that’s drawn between the good parts and the bad parts for our youths online.
When I paid a visit to Woodford Primary School in Plympton, Devon to film a short piece for my university work, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing when I was told about how involved the pupils are with technology nowadays and the effects it is having on pupils at such a young age.
Going all the way back to 2008 in my last year of primary school, children were still very much less involved with technology and were hyped on what next new Nintendo DS they could get their hands on, but now times have changed, pupils are more interested now on which friend has the better IPhone, and how many likes an individual can get on one selfie.
But looking beyond the screen and into one’s youthful mind, social media can trigger a huge issue in mental health for a child because they can get so caught up in the world of the media, that it can start affecting people’s emotions and social abilities to co
mmunicate on the outside.
On an article released by The Independent earlier this year, it investigates the growing concern of the mental health issues that have developed from children aged between 10 and 12. It states that children are getting so paranoid over the appearance of themselves on social media, that it has started to affect them mentally in a lot of negative ways.
Social media is an issue that schools are starting to consider strongly now over recent years that will need to be managed due to the effects it is having on our younger generation, as many are easily influenced by what they see out there in the big world.
But although social media has flourished in many ways in helping children interact, such as group studies, and having an audience to express themselves individually, there needs to be an even balance before things can turn upside down for good.
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