Effect of Social Media on Teens

As per a recent survey conducted by Fortis hospital, around 82% of students studying psychology in classes XI and XII in at least 200 schools across major cities in India, have said that social media has influenced their opinions and attitudes.

• Even the general reaction of the public at large is that social media is addictive for young people and that they should avoid it.
• But such knee-jerk reaction is not right as use of any media can have both positive and negative influences. It all depends on how children interact with the medium.
• For example close 78% of a total of 4,000 students who were polled for a survey said they spend a lot of time a day on social media and that it should be used as a tool to spread awareness and dispel myths about mental health issues.
  
  • On mental health issues, 46% said mainstream media is not doing enough to create awareness and 32% believed that it has, in fact, increased stigma.
  • The Fortis survey found that 94% of the students believed that social media is a means to create awareness.
• Children need to be taught that media is not a one-sided communication; they must be taught about the authenticity of the news or the news is just appealing to their emotions.
• For the purpose, parents need to create media literacy so that children can use the medium to their benefit.