Teens tend to communicate across many different social media platforms.
Our phones are often the first thing we touch when starting our day. Over 35 percent of people use their phones first thing in the morning, which can lead to many different moods for people throughout the day. I tend to do the same same thing as a high schooler who has school Monday through Friday, I use my phone first thing in the morning.
The most common times people use or pull out their phones are during their outings like at dinners and standing in a line. I have a tendency to do so by using my phone whenever I am not accompanied by anyone and or have nothing else to do. Teenagers commonly use it as a form to check basis with friends and family, as well as social media. As time goes by, many infants and younger generations have been using technology and cellular devices as a way to keep them company. On the other hand, this destroys the way of communicating and playing with people.
Well over 20 percent of kids of the age of one have their own individual tablet/ screen to use. The two different scales that researchers saw that teens who use their phone to go on social media and others who use their phone to answer texts and call people are in two different categories. It shocks me to hear how the younger generation already has their own devices because when I was younger I didn’t have these amenities.
Nowadays that so many young children have these tablets and devices, I can compare myself to when I was younger and this wasn’t the norm. Now, this is the new norm for young kids to have devices that range from very young ages. Especially with the new generation growing up, I can tell that their devices and social media will have an impact on them from the amount of time spent on it.
People try to cope with hardships in their life and tend to use their phone as one of the main sources to bring relief to themselves.Co-author Darita Schoenback said, “Smartphones introduce a new challenge.” This challenge is perceived as being on a one to one with yourself indulged if it is necessary to be on your device. It brings pleasure to people and mainly teens when using social media as well as myself who is sixteen year old in high school.
Solely over the pandemic, the trending app TikTok has reached 600 million users compared to when it first launched and was at 28 million users. Not only on TikTok, other popular social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram can have a great effect on one’s self. I am one to say that I use a majority of these apps on a daily basis. Just by looking on the “Social Network” portion on my screen time on my iPhone, it ranges from 3-5 hours.
Eighty-three percent of teens feel more connected to each other through the source of social media. As they feel “connected” to each other, this leads them to spend more time on their devices to communicate rather than in person. One of the only ways that I stay “connected” with my friends is through apps like Instagram and Snapchat where I am able to send and post pictures amongst my friends.
Not only have physical dates changed, now online dating websites are more intuned with people meeting and chatting/ videoing each other rather than seeing each other in person. If someone told me a few years ago that dating would be online rather than finding someone in person I thought that they would be lying. Currently there are so many dating apps like Tinder, Match, Bumble, and so many more.
Devices can distract and consume a lot of someone’s time when they can interact with another person face to face and communicate with each other in person rather than online through social media and not getting to fully know each other.
